This thesis offers a theoretical investigation into concepts of beauty, the sculptured body and myths of Venus and Medusa, primarily through the works of Igor Mitoraj and Marc Quinn. These themes are transformed and inverted in the Looking-glass towards the trans-body, which is fragmented, sometimes monstrous, grotesque or ugly, but it is still complete. Resonating with Eros, it advocates a new trans-sexuality and establishes a concept of new desire , both of which question the legitimacy and limits of the concept of gender in relation to the body. This thesis proposes looking at the body beyond straightforward associations with a particular sex, incorporating approaches beyond art historical and art critical perspectives. Overall, the argument is informed by three particular concepts - paratopisms, paralogisms and parachronisms - drawn from the writings of Jean-François Lyotard. Jean Baudrillard s idea of the trans and swallowing the mirror provides another focus for the thesis. As such, this work is an attempt to go through to the other side of the mirror with respect to topos here, aesthetics and narratives; logos here, beauty and ugliness; and chronos in this research, the new desire. Through a detailed analysis of a number of case-studies I focus on the transformation of the trope of the classical into para-classical; the implosion of Venus into Medusa, beauty into ugliness, perfection into imperfection and ability into disability; and, finally, the metamorphosis of the sculptured body in the mirror. The figure of Venus is utilised in order to scrutinise the modifications and metamorphoses, both internal and external, of the body in relation to the fragment and the classical Greco-Roman ideal. The thesis aims to bring to the study of sculpture a deconstruction of the body through readings on gender, subjectivities and the gaze of the other. It focuses on the female body, represented by the figure of Venus, which is modified and appropriated according to patriarchal order, but also, as it relies on Hélène Cixous's Medusa laugh, it generates a new perspective in seeing the body as a hybrid; a metamorphosing construct, able to transform beyond and within corporeality. Viewing the body as an entity in a constant state of flux, shifting identities and gender, this study proposes this new concept - trans-body as a response to the current hyperreal simulated model of sexuality, and stimulates (and simulates) a change of focus in opticality towards illusions and trans-vesting myths.

<p>The purpose of this essay is to examine what can be considered as obscene in the work of Joel</p><p>Peter Witkin and Marc Quinn, what the similarities and differences are. The essay concerns the</p><p>human body, the norms around it and the old vision of the ideal body. To get closer to my</p><p>question I’ve been examine the meaning of anti-ideal, what it means and what kind of history it</p><p>has. The works I’ve been using to reach to my purpose are Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper</p><p>(2005) and Joel Peter Witkin’s photography Abundance (1997). Both of the works are taking the</p><p>position that use to belong to the classical beauty. The analysis of these works focuses on the old</p><p>classical symbol interpretation, the character of the work and the doubt in the old ideal norms of</p><p>the classical beauty.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to examine what can be considered as obscene in the work of Joel Peter Witkin and Marc Quinn, what the similarities and differences are. The essay concerns the human body, the norms around it and the old vision of the ideal body. To get closer to my question I’ve been examine the meaning of anti-ideal, what it means and what kind of history it has. The works I’ve been using to reach to my purpose are Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper (2005) and Joel Peter Witkin’s photography Abundance (1997). Both of the works are taking the position that use to belong to the classical beauty. The analysis of these works focuses on the old classical symbol interpretation, the character of the work and the doubt in the old ideal norms of the classical beauty.

From the viewpoint of classical reception studies, I am asking what contemporary British art (by, for example, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst, and Mark Wallinger) has to do with the classical tradition – both the art and literature of Greco-Roman antiquity. I have conducted face-to-face interviews with some of the leading artists working in Britain today, including Lucas, Hirst, Wallinger, Marc Quinn, and Gilbert & George. In addition to contemporary art, the thesis focuses on Greco-Roman art and on myths and modes of looking that have come to shape the western art historical tradition – seeking to offer a different perspective on them from that of the Renaissance and neoclassicism. The thesis concentrates on the generation of artists known as the YBAs, or Young British Artists, who came to prominence in the 1990s. These artists are not renowned for their deference to the classical tradition, and are widely regarded as having turned their backs on classical art and its legacies. The introduction asks whether their work, which has received little scholarly attention, might be productively reassessed from the perspective of classical reception studies. It argues that while their work no longer subscribes to a traditional understanding of classical ‘influence’, it continues to depend – for its power and provocativeness – on classical concepts of figuration, realism, and the basic nature of art. Without claiming that the work of the YBAs is classical or classicizing, the thesis sets out to challenge the assumption that their work has nothing to do with ancient art, or that it fails to conform to ancient understandings of what art is. In order to do this, the thesis analyses contemporary works of art through three classical ‘lenses’. Each lens allows contemporary art to be examined in the context of a longer history. The first lens is the concept of realism, as seen in artistic and literary explorations of the relationship between art and life. This chapter uses the myth of Pygmalion’s statue as a way of thinking about contemporary art’s continued engagement with ideas of mimesis and the ‘real’ which were theorised and debated in antiquity. The second lens is corporeal fragmentation, as evidenced by the broken condition of ancient statues, the popular theme of dismemberment in western art, and the fragmentary body in contemporary art. The final chapter focuses on the figurative plaster cast, arguing that contemporary art continues to invoke and reinvent the long tradition of plaster reproductions of ancient statues and bodies. Through each of these ‘lenses’, I argue that contemporary art remains linked, both in form and meaning, to the classical past – often in ways which go beyond the stated intentions of an artist. Contemporary art continues to be informed by ideas and processes that were theorised and practised in the classical world; indeed, it is these ideas and processes that make it deserving of the art label.