the artist is naked

With the exhibition "the artist is naked", Kunstpalais Erlangen (Erlangen Art Palace) takes a look at undisguised works from the Municipal Collection on the themes of the body, nudity and self-portraits by artists from the 1960s to the present day. Complemented by selected loans, exciting dialogues about current events, freedoms fought for and ongoing needs are created.

In the 1960s, artists began to use their bodies as a medium, starting with the Happening and Fluxus movements. In performances, photography and video art, naked bodies and deliberate provocation were used to seek liberation from social and political constraints and create expressive statements in the context of the civil and human rights movement, women's movement and sexual revolution.

Even today, artists still like to use their own bodies as art objects. Sometimes with a great deal of humour, sometimes shocking or even seductive, but always completely undisguised, they provide glimpses of more than just naked facts. After all, the body and nudity are still hot topics - photos of the female breast, for example, appear just as scandalous and in need of censorship on social media as they did 60 years ago. The collection exhibition "the artist is naked" at Kunstpalais tells stories about emancipation, liberation, self-discovery and acceptance.

Last edited on 22.05.2025