Gender Performance in Photography
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PHOTOGRAPHY (A CI (A CI GENDER PERFORMANCE IN PHOTOGRAPHY (A a C/VFV4& (A a )^/VM)6e GENDER PERFORMANCE IN PHOTOGRAPHY JENNIFER BLESSING JUDITH HALBERSTAM LYLE ASHTON HARRIS NANCY SPECTOR CAROLE-ANNE TYLER SARAH WILSON GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: front cover: Gender Performance in Photography Claude Cahun Organized by Jennifer Blessing Self- Portrait, ca. 1928 Gelatin-silver print, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 11 'X. x 9>s inches (30 x 23.8 cm) January 17—April 27, 1997 Musee des Beaux Arts de Nantes This exhibition is supported in part by back cover: the National Endowment tor the Arts Nan Goldin Jimmy Paulettc and Tabboo! in the bathroom, NYC, 1991 €)1997 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Cibachrome print, New York. All rights reserved. 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm) Courtesy of the artist and ISBN 0-8109-6901-7 (hardcover) Matthew Marks Gallery, New York ISBN 0-89207-185-0 (softcover) Guggenheim Museum Publications 1071 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10128 Hardcover edition distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 100 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10011 Designed by Bethany Johns Design, New York Printed in Italy by Sfera Contents JENNIFER BLESSING xyVwMie is a c/\rose is a z/vxose Gender Performance in Photography JENNIFER BLESSING CAROLE-ANNE TYLER 134 id'emt nut files - KyMxUcuo&wuieS SARAH WILSON 156 c/erfoymuiq me c/jodt/ im me J970s NANCY SPECTOR 176 ^ne S$r/ of ~&e#idew Bathrooms, Butches, and the Aesthetics of Female Masculinity JUDITH HALBERSTAM 190 f//a« waclna LYLE ASHTON HARRIS 204 Stfrtists ' iyjtoqra/inies TRACEY BASHKOFF, SUSAN CROSS, VIVIEN GREENE, AND J. FIONA RAGHEB 221 *jndex 0/ cyle/wt <///<//< as ///,.. /</<< tin a /n ^7'o((}i</<rfroM Honorary Trustees in Perpetuity Trustees Solomon R. Guggenheim Giovanni Agnelli Justin K. Thannhauser Jon Imanol Azua Peggy Guggenheim Edgar Bronfman, Jr. The Right Honorable Earl Chairman Castle Stewart Peter Lawson-Johnston Mary Sharp Cronson Carlo De Benedetti President Daniel Filipacchi Ronald O. Perelman Robert M. Gardiner Barbara Jonas Vice-Presidents David H. Koch Robert M. Gardiner Thomas Krens Wendy L-J. McNeil Peter Lawson-Johnston Rolf-Dieter Leister Vice-President and Treasurer Peter B. Lewis Stephen C. Swid Peter Littmann Wendy L-J. McNeil Director Edward H. Meyer Thomas Krens Ronald O. Perelman Frederick Reid Secretary Richard A. Rifkind Edward F. Rover Denise Saul Rudolph B. Schulhof Honorary Trustee Terry Semel Claude Pompidou James B. Sherwood Raja Sidawi Trustee, Ex Officio Seymour Slive Jacques E. Lennon Stephen C. Swid John S. Wadsworth, Jr. Director Emeritus Cornel West Thomas M. Messer Michael F. Wettach John Wilmerding William T Ylvisaker -Z.<'//f/r/'.j /( ///< c j ////</ Yff // Timothy Baum, New York The Museum of Modern Art, New York Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby's London National Portrait Gallery, London Galerie Berggruen, Paris Daniel Newburg Patrick Breen Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Diisseldorf Michael James O'Brien Robert C. Conn, California Parti Communiste Francais, Paris The Detroit Institute of Arts The Philadelphia Museum of Art Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt REFCO Group, Ltd. William S. Ehrlich and Ruth Lloyds Regen Projects, Los Angeles Alexandra Epps G. Rossi, Milan M. Anthony and Anne E. Fisher The Royal Photographic Society, Bath Fonds Albert-Birot, Paris Beverly and Harris Schoenfeld Barry Friedman Ltd., New York Michael Senft, New York Nan Goldin Fisher Stevens Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York Jack Tilton Gallery, New York Ronnie and Samuel Heyman, New York Ubu Gallery, New York Jane B. Holzer Wooster Gardens, New York Vivian Horan Jedermann Collection, N. A. Three lenders who wish to remain anonymous Joan and Gerald Kimmelman Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Inc., Bloomington, Ind. Margo Leavin Gallery, West Hollywood Los Angeles County Museum of Art Christian Marclay Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Richard and Ronay Menschel Carol and Paul Meringoff Annette Messager The Metropolitan Museum of Art Robert Miller Gallery, New York Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Musee des Beaux- Arts de Nantes Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris VII Cindy Sherman Untitled, #112, 19H2 Color photograph, 45.' x 30 inches (114.9 x 76.2 cm), ed. 1/10 REFCO Group, Ltd. — Jp'<ume,Je, n 'cUmefiaA ' I like, I don'l like Js Yi/ce. : salad, cinnamon, cheese, pimento, marzipan, the smell of new-cut hay (why doesn't someone with a "nose" make such a perfume), roses, peonies, laven- der, champagne, loosely held political convictions, Glenn Gould, too-cold beer, flat pillows, toast, Havana cigars, Handel, slow walks, pears, white peaches, cherries, colors, watches, all kinds of writing pens, desserts, unrefined salt, realistic novels, the piano, coffee. Pollock, Twombly, all romantic music, Sartre, Brecht, Verne, Fourier, Eisenstein, trains, Medoc wine, having change, Bouvard and Pecuchet. walking in sandals on the lanes of southwest France, the bend of the Adour seen from Doctor L.'s house, the Marx Brothers, the mountains at seven in the morning leaving Salamanca, etc. J/ cloot Y /(Arc : white Pomeranians, women in slacks, geraniums, strawberries, the harpsichord, Miro, tautologies, animated cartoons, Arthur Rubinstein, villas, the afternoon, Satie, Bartok, Vivaldi, telephoning, children's choruses, Chopin's concertos, Burgundian branles and Renaissance dances, the organ, Marc- Antoine Charpentier, his trumpets and kettledrums, the politico-sexual, scenes, initiatives, fidelity, spontaneity, evenings with people I don't know, etc. J/ li/oe, J/ aon Y Yi/ce : this is of no importance to anyone; this, apparently, has no meaning. And yet all this means: my body is not the same as yours. Hence, in this anarchic foam of tastes and distastes, a kind of listless blur, gradually appears the figure of a bodily enigma, requiring complicity or irritation. Here begins the intimidation of the body, which obliges others to endure me liberally, to remain silent and polite confronted by pleasures or rejections which they do not share. (A fly bothers me, I kill it: you kill what bothers you. If I had not killed the fly, it would have been out o/ pure liberalism: I am liberal in order not to be a killer.) —ROLAND BARTHES Xjrovetuwd THOMAS KRENS An important milestone in the history of the Guggenheim Museum was reached in 1993, when the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation made a combined gift of a significant body of photographs and a supporting grant for the future acquisition of Modern and contemporary photography. The gift established photography as a significant part of the Guggenheim's permanent collection, thus offering an additional medium to further the Guggenheim's mission of interpreting the art of this century. In the past few years, the museum has offered a rich selection of photography exhibitions including monographic shows on Robert Mapplethorpe and Joel-Peter Witkin; photography sections within the context of other exhibitions (The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968; Joseph Albers: Glass, Color, and Light; and In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present); as well as exhibitions organized by other institutions, such as Photography in Contemporary German Art (Walker Art Center); Women on the Edge: Twenty Photographers in Europe, 1919-1939 (J. Paul Getty Museum); and Dieter Appelt (Art Institute of Chicago). As we reach the end of this century, more exhibitions that attempt to synthesize the art and issues of the twentieth century are being organized. The Guggenheim is committed to approaching art as an international and transhistorical phenomenon. The institution has always been strongly linked to Europe; now, responding to changes in contemporary society brought about through advances in transportation and telecommunications, its orientation has become global. Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography is the Guggenheim Museum's first photography exhibition to be based on premises that are thematic and theoretical rather than monographic or strictly historical. It traces an issue across the course of the twentieth century and examines its devel- opment in several countries. We are most grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency, for its early sup- port of Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose. Without its imprimatur, it is unlikely that the research for this pro- ject could have been undertaken. Through this support, our audience will be permitted to enjoy the art of many artists whose work has not previously been exhibited at the museum and, in some cases, has never before been shown in the United States. Guggenheim Museum Assistant Curator Jennifer Blessing proposed this exhibition several years ago. I want to thank her for suggesting this innovative show, and for her diligence and commitment in seeing it through to its splendid realization. And, finally, this exhibition would not be possible without the artists who created the works and the lenders who were so considerate as to lend them. My gratitude goes to all of the individuals and institutions who so generously contributed to the success of this project. JENNIFER BLESSING If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. ISAAC NEWTON This exhibition is the fruit of encouragement from colleagues, without which I might not have pur- sued the topic. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to present my initial ideas in graduate semi- nars conducted by Linda Nochlin and Robert Lubar at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. In 1993, Guggenheim Museum Associate Curator Nancy Spector first suggested that I pro- pose an exhibition related to my academic work in Surrealism and the theory of masquerade. I thank her for being a source of inspiration and a supportive comrade throughout this project. At an early stage in its development, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded a grant to Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography.