Nude Performance at MFA Boston Confronts One of Art’s Oldest Tropes
Hyperallergic reports that artist Xandra Ibarra performed “Nude Laughing” (2014–) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on Thursday, April 16, as part of the museum’s ongoing exhibition “Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude.” The performance took place during the museum’s Third Thursday program, when admission drops to $5, and drew intense debate online after the MFA posted about it on Instagram. Ibarra appeared nude except for a breastplate and yellow heels, dragging a sack of wigs and other “white lady accoutrements,” and moved through galleries while laughing, culminating near Paul Gauguin’s “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” (1897–98). Curator Carmen Hermo said the project was designed to confront the MFA’s “colonial baggage,” and Ibarra framed the work as a critique of how museums normalize a “violent archive of sex” within art history and the art market.
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This story was covered in Museum Money Games and AI’s New Frontier