Overview
The Artist's Body is part of Phaidon's Themes & Movements series, a group of groundbreaking sourcebooks on the prevailing art tendencies of our times. Each Themes & Movement book includes a complete overview of the given theme, situating individual artists' works in the context of modern art. The documents include artists' statements, interviews, manifestos, project notes, reviews and articles by key critics, and parallel texts from other cultural, philosophical, and literary sources. Each book includes an introductory essay charting the genealogy of the theme or movement, as well as approximately 250 plates of artworks, including rarely published installation shots and preliminary drawings. Finally, each book includes biographies of all of the artists and authors involved, as well as a comprehensive bibliography. They are intended for uninitiated readers and scholars alike.
The Artist's Body traces artists' increasing use of their bodies as subject and actual material of their artworks. It charts the rise of new forms of expression such as Body Art, Happenings, Performance Art, and Live Art. Over 250 images bring together the largely untold history of these often controversial artworks—the first telling of its kind. A survey by Amelia Jones, an authority on Body and Performance Art, shows how these works uniquely inform us about the social and cultural upheavals of the last five decades.