The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra has announced a revealing new exhibition Bare: Degrees of Undress, featuring Dame Edna Everage, Olympian Ian Thorpe and INXS frontman Michael Hutchence in various states of undress.
Exhibition curator Penelope Grist has drawn together more than 90 portraits of well-known faces from the gallery’s collection to explore issues of identity and personality as well as audiences reactions to bareness.
Hutchence was photographed by Australian photographer Polly Borland not long before his death in 1997. Borland’s 1999 nude portrait of Germaine Greer, who famously disrobed for Suck magazine in 1971, is also included in the exhibition.
Greer has been critical of the portrait. “In terms of abiding aesthetic value, Polly Borland’s photograph of me naked on my bed ... has nothing to offer beyond the footling detail of the toile de jouy wallpaper of my bedroom, which is at least in focus, unlike my face,” she said.
Other famous subjects in the exhibition include model-turned-actress Megan Gale, sportsman Billy Slater and singer Christine Anu.
Grist draws a distinction between bareness and nudity, saying in a statement: “Bareness is not as extreme as nakedness and not as refined as nudity. Bareness emphasises something about a subject’s identity as well as reflecting society. The decision to uncover part, or all, of the body in a portrait is at least as significant as a choice of clothing. Visitors to Bare will see these portraits in a completely new way.”
The exhibition opens in August. Canberra’s Youth Theatre will respond to the exhibition with a production entitled Skin that investigates identity through bareness.
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Bare is on National Portrait Gallery from 14 August to 15 November 2015. Entry is free
