The exhibition “Body, Gaze, Power: A Cultural History of the Bath” at Baden-Baden’s Stadtmuseum focuses on a global social practice as old as humanity itself. Although bathing has always been associated with rituals of cleanliness, links are revealed over the centuries that go far beyond issues of hygiene, health, or a sense of well-being. In fact, the bath as a location and the act of bathing were always ideologically, religiously, socially, and culturally charged, and still are today.
This show presents masterpieces of art from the past centuries and antiquity, including a version of the famous painting The Death of Marat from the studio of Jacques-Louis David, alongside current contemporary art from various geographic and cultural contexts, presenting them alongside a variety of historical exhibits and objects from everyday life. Bathing culture is thus revealed to be a reflection of the society in question, touching on issues such as the sacred and the profane, purity and uncleanliness, the beneficial and the harmful, public and private, nudity and clothing, the aristocratic and the plebeian, and power, class, and gender relations.
Onésimos, Rotfigurige Schale, 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Keramik, Inventar-Nr.: G291 Paris, Musée du Louvre, Copyright: bpk / RMN – Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski
The large-scale show presents not only objects from everyday life, like old shaving bowls, bath heaters, or hammam sandals, but also major artworks by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, David Hockney, Joseph Beuys, Nan Goldin, Paul Chan, Monira Al Qadiri, and Thomas Demand. Organized by theme and grouped spatially in separate sections, a wide-reaching web of relationships opens up. In so doing, political implications of the bath emerge, gender issues and visual relations, artistic rituals and variants of orientalism with its exoticizing notion of the foreign and the beautiful, usually in the form of the female nude body.
Artists: Patrick Angus, Hans Sebald Beham, Bernadette Corporation, Émile Bernard, Joseph Beuys, Maurice Bouviolle, Louis Brion de la Tour, Giuseppe Cesari, Paul Chan, Jules Dalou, Atelier de Jacques-Louis David, Thomas Demand, Maurice Denis, Joseph-Eugène-Armand Duquesne, Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros, Albrecht Dürer, François Eisen, Martin Engelbrecht, Rainer Fetting, Ken Friedman, Parastou Forouhar, Friedrich Wilhelm Gmelin, Nan Goldin, Ion Grigorescu, Jean-Jacques Hauer, David Hockney, Charles François Hutin, Nicolas-René Jollain, Othman Khadraoui, Ute Klophaus, Katarzyna Kozyra, Nicolas II Larmessin, Charles-Alfred Leclerc, Leonard Koren, Suzanne Lacy, Zoe Leonard, Massias & Durin, Masamoto, Hieronimo Mercurali, Jules Migonney, Lee Miller & David E. Scherman, Onésimos, Yoko Ono, Benjamin Patterson, Edmond-Jean-Baptiste Paulin, Pablo Picasso, François II de Poilly, Monira Al Qadiri, Delphine Reist, Édouard Frédéric Richter, Amable Ravoisié, Mieko Shiomi, Chiharu Shiota, Tomotoshi, Gaston de La Touche, Ben Vautier, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
Hans Sebald Beham , Das Bad, im Rund, 1515 – 1550, Holzschnitt, beschnitten, 28,8 x 29,2 cm, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg
Body. Gaze. Power. A Cultural History of the Bath is part of an extensive collaboration project BADEN of Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden with Mucem, Marseille, Stadtmuseum Baden-Baden, and Museum LA8. Based on an idea by Mucem.
“Body, Gaze, Power: A Cultural History of the Bath”
7.3.–21.6.2020
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
Schild eines Dampfbads oder Maskarons, Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts, Beginn des 14. Jahrhunderts, Marseille, musée d’Histoire de Marseille, © bpk / RMN – Grand Palais / Benjamin Soligny / Raphaël Chipault
Unbekannt, Das erste Bad, Mitte 19. Jahrhundert, 3 cm, Elfenbein, Düsseldorf, Kunstpalast Inventarnummer: P2005-394, Foto: © Kunstpalast – Lothar Milatz – ARTOTHEK
Nicolas René Jollain, La Toilette, ca. 1780, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris
Jules Migonney, Le Bain maure, 1911, Öl auf Leinwand, 104 x 188 cm, Musée du monastère royal de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, Foto: Carine Monfray
Yasumasa, Frau, Haare waschend, ca. 1900, 3,2 cm, Elfenbein, Düsseldorf, Kunstpalast, Inventarnummer: P2005-418, Foto: © Kunstpalast – Lothar Milatz – ARTOTHEK
Giuseppe Cesari (gennant Cavalier d’Arpin), Diane und Acteon, 1. Quartal des 17. Jahrhunderts, 49,5 x 66,5 cm, Öl auf Leinwand, Musée de la Vénerie, Senlis, Foto: Irwin Leullier
Maurice Denis, Les Captifs, 1907, musée des Beaux-Arts, Nachlass Paul Jamot, 1939, © Christian Devleeschauwer
Ute Klophaus, Aktion Celtic in der Klasse von Joseph Beuys in der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 1971, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Archiv künstlerischer Fotografie der rheinischen Kunstszene (AFORK), Foto: © Kunstpalast – Horst Kolberg – ARTOTHEK, © Nachlass Ute Klophaus / Joseph Beuys © VG Bild Kunst, Bonn, 2020
Karteikarten mit Fotografien aus der American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs des US amerikanischen Nationalarchivs, 1918, © U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Karteikarten mit Fotografien aus der American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs des US amerikanischen Nationalarchivs, 1918, © U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Patrick Angus, A Shower at the Baths, 1984, Acryl auf Leinwand, 51 X 71 cm, Sammlung Andreas Pucher, Stuttgart © Douglas Blair Turnbaugh
Martin Bothe: Nature ruins everything, 2016/2020, © Martin Bothe und VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2020
Bianca Kennedy, VR all in this together, 2018, © Bianca Kennedy
Thomas Demand, Bathroom, 1997, C-Print/ Diasec, 160 x 122 cm, © Thomas Demand, VG Bild Kunst, Bonn Kunstmuseum Bonn, Dauerleihgabe Kico seit 2015
Bianca Kennedy, We’re all in this together, 2018, © Bianca Kennedy und VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2020
