Dimensions: image: 1213 x 935 mm
Copyright: © The estate of John Coplans | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is John Coplans' "Self-Portrait (Back with Arms Above)." It's a striking image, almost confrontational in its starkness. What's your take on this work? Curator: Coplans challenges conventional beauty standards, reclaiming the aging, imperfect body as a site of power and visibility. How does this piece engage with broader societal anxieties around age and the male form? Editor: So, it's a deliberate act of defiance? Curator: Precisely. It disrupts the hyper-sexualized images we often see, demanding a re-evaluation. It makes us consider the politics of representation and whose bodies are deemed worthy of artistic attention. Editor: I never thought about it that way. It's definitely more than just a photograph. Curator: Indeed. It’s a powerful statement about aging, visibility, and the politics inherent in self-representation.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/coplans-self-portrait-back-with-arms-above-p11671
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Coplans was one of the most influential art critics in America in the 1960s and 1970s, championing Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Donald Judd. In 1971 he was appointed editor of the influential magazine, Artforum and in 1978 he became director of the Akron Art Museum in Ohio. In the mid 1960s Coplans began taking photographs of his own ageing naked body. The photographs focus on isolated body parts showing them enlarged and close-up, so that they seem at once familiar and unfamiliar. Coplans' monumental images recall classical sculpture, whilst emphasising the relentless progression of the ageing process. Gallery label, August 2004
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