In this monumental drawing, Banner narrates a detailed portrait of a nude woman, calling attention to the act of viewing and critiquing the ubiquity of the female nude in the history of art. "Using words as opposed to line and color is a way of being able, on my own personal turf, to reinvent the nude," Banner has said. Faintly visible in the background is a shadowy image of an airplane's tail fin—the remnant of a larger series in which the artist worked with descriptions and actual parts of fighter planes and helicopters. Banner, a member of the Young British Artist cohort that emerged in London in the 1990s, is interested in the intersection of war and beauty in Western cultural memory.

Gallery label from

2013.

Medium Pencil on paper
Dimensions 91 1/4 x 71 3/4" (231.8 x 182.2 cm)
Credit Purchase
Object number 371.2006
Department Drawings and Prints

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