Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Oral presentation › Research
Description
The paper Fit for Purpose: The Classical Millstone, the Classical Touchstone was presented at the Art, Classicism and Discourse from 1755 to Today conference at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK in 2019 (chaired by Melissa Gustin, University of York).
The paper centred on a discussion of Hollinshead’s sculptures Doughboy and the Iliac Crest and Sanit Forma, which were explored in relation to nuances of composition, figurative poses and body typologies to draw out the connections between classical ideals and mythologies with contemporary gym culture and male body image. Nochlin’s assertion that the fragmented body is transgressive and Hatt’s view that depicting the body as sculptural has traditionally been a means of stabilising the body’s fallibility were both explored in reference to these two sculptures; the paper extended these arguments to consider the male body within the specific context of the gym environment.