Label Text:
The reclining nude has a long history in Western art, stretching back to the Italian Renaissance. Such images, however, have been produced almost exclusively of female subjects for male viewers. In the series Z, Rowan Renee plays with the concept of gender by replacing the classical female nude with gender-nonconforming individuals. Renee uses an outdated photographic medium called ambrotype. Ambrotype is a difficult and messy process that requires the preparation and exposure of wet glass plates in the span of about ten minutes. The liquescent images that result further highlight the fluidity of gender and representation alike.

-Jaime Pagana, Curatorial Assistant, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (Jan. 2017)

Tags:
portraits; African American; women; bodies; nudes; black and white

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2015.21.1

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