Representation and Visual Politics of the Extreme Body

The beautiful human body has perennially occupied a central space in art. Both art and aesthetics maintain the beauty of the human body as the focal point of artistic expression and philosophical thought. However, modern art has thoroughly overturned the idea of the beautiful body and the aesthetic principles of its expression, creating a completely new form of representing the body—the extreme body. The extreme body has become a mainstream image eagerly embraced by modern artists. Transgressed representations, visual discomfort, and the body becoming a goal in and of itself, has dramatically altered the paradigm of the body in modern art.