Förkastandet av idealet

Sammanfattning

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.