Hannah Wilke
2010
Published by Prestel Publishing25 x 31.3 cm168 pagesHardbackISBN 3791339729
Hannah Wilke was a defining presence in the community of women artists who emerged in the 1960s, determined to expose (and fix) the inequities of the fast-growing art world. She developed a bold visual language responsive to female experience; at the same time she was an unapologetic individualist who celebrated in her work her relationships with men as well as women and frankly explored the pleasures of sexuality.
Using a wide range of unconventional media, including latex and chewing gum as well as photography and film, she paid tribute to predecessors like Marcel Duchamp with humorous irreverence. Her key concern was the body as instrument and object of visual expression; Wilke was most boldly honest in an unremitting self-exploration that she undertook without false modesty (when her naked body was an uncomplicated delight to behold) or shame (when it was mercilessly blighted by cancer).
As the first monograph to comprehensively survey Wilke’s artistic career, this book celebrates the achievement of a pioneering and provocative artist whose controversial and ultimately deeply moving work is now being recognised.