From Tracey Emin\u2019s dishevelled bed to John and Yoko\u2019s bedbound protest, we take a closer look at the different meanings ascribed to beds throughout modern and contemporary art history <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[9632,4230,1375,10981,10982,10980,5186,5911,2378,4789,4723,1458,5300,1416,9754,10983,756,470,1551],"class_list":["post-69610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-anselm-kiefer","tag-conceptual-art","tag-contemporary-art","tag-edouard-manet","tag-edward-hopper","tag-emma-sulkowicz","tag-frida-kahlo","tag-john-lennon","tag-louise-bourgeois","tag-modern-art","tag-njideka-akunyili-crosby","tag-painting","tag-rachel-whiteread","tag-sculpture","tag-sophie-calle","tag-titian","tag-tracey-emin","tag-vincent-van-gogh","tag-yoko-ono"],"acf":{"main_category":139,"legacy":false,"hero_title":"","subtitle":"From Tracey Emin\u2019s dishevelled duvet to John and Yoko\u2019s bedbound protest, we take a closer look at the multiple meanings bestowed on beds throughout art history ","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"4","proportion":"natural"},"facebook_image":false,"related_articles":[38068,69393,49921],"next_article":[69545],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Edouard Manet, \"Olympia\", 1863"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Site of slumber, sex, and sickness, the bed occupies a significant corner of our lives. \u00a0As a household object it is uniquely loaded \u2014 a divided destination of dreaming, devotion, death and despair, so much of existence takes place there. It is no wonder then that this humble piece of furniture has been a popular subject for artists, ranging from traditional depictions of the bed as a place of sleep and restfulness to more experimental and conceptual representations of it as an arena of political intent, or as a charged object of desire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When we think of beds in art, Tracey Emin\u2019s seminal <\/span>My Bed<\/span><\/i> from the late \u201890s is the most obvious specimen. In this controversial work, Emin reconstructed her own bed in the gallery space, strewn with detritus \u2014 including Absolut bottles, discarded knickers and used condoms \u2014 and a slew of stained sheets. Based on the artist\u2019s bedbound drinking spree, the work can be considered to be a frank self-portrait. The \u201cbed\u201d as the visceral venue of desire and degradation is the ideal canvas for Emin to meditate on her personal experience; at the same time, it\u2019s a not-so-subtle nod to the role the bed has played throughout art history. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BaIqGZJnuwn\/?tagged=traceyeminmybed","settings":{"width":"12"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" If Emin\u2019s bed isn\u2019t the first bed that comes to mind, then maybe it\u2019s Manet\u2019s <\/span>Olympia<\/span><\/i>. In 1863, Edouard Manet painted a nude woman propped upright against plush pillows on a creased bed, boldy confronting the viewer with her gaze. Much like Emin\u2019s bed, the painting was described as \u201cshocking\u201d when in was first unveiled to the public. To the contemporary viewer, it might not be so clear why this was (after all art history is basically just a massive archive of female nudes) but Manet\u2019s was different. For starters, she wore that tiny choker, which was a sure sign for the people of the day that this wasn\u2019t a virgin, or a noble woman who just wanted to get naked, but rather \u2014 a prostitute. Second of all, viewers were aghast at the way she looked directly back at them, disregarding the genteel, coy sideways glance of historical portraiture \u2014 she\u2019s knowing. And, it goes without saying: Manet\u2019s rumpled bed reeks of sex and debauchery. <\/span><\/p>\n Manet\u2019s painting subverts a long artistic tradition of women arranged lengthways on beds for heterosexual male viewing pleasure. In the most famous example \u2014Titian\u2019s delectable <\/span>Venus of Urbino <\/span><\/i><\/a>(1534) \u2014 the \u201creclining nude\u201d is a sweet, cherub-faced woman lounging across an unmade bed in a docile, inviting pose. In contrast, Manet\u2019s brazen bedfellow claims the bed as her own. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/tQVScvuBdZ\/?tagged=emmasulkowicz","settings":{"width":"6"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" But, the bed is not just a passive symbol of sex and erotic power play, it is also an active site of discussion. Between 2014 and 2015, Columbia student <\/span>Emma Sulkowicz lugged a 50-pound dorm mattress across campus as an endurance performance piece.The purpose of <\/span>Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)<\/span><\/i>\u2014 her senior visual arts thesis \u2014 \u00a0was to challenge how the college handled rape cases, including her own. While the performance was derided for its exposure of the accused while legal proceedings were ongoing, the piece was also praised for what art critic Jerry Saltz called its \u201cpure radical vulnerability<\/a>\u201d. \u00a0As with Emin\u2019s installation, Sulkowicz\u2019 mattress enters the public domain as an emotionally charged and politically fraught object. <\/span><\/p>\n If we are talking of beds as a place of political demonstration, then who can forget John Lennon\u2019s \u00a0and Yoko Ono\u2019s <\/span>Bed-ins for Peace<\/span><\/i>? In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, Lennon and Ono held two week-long peaceful protests from the comfort of their hotel beds in Amsterdam and Montreal. Derived from the \u201csit-in\u201d as a form of peaceful protest, they invited the world press to witness their quiet demonstration. While not necessarily an art performance, the <\/span>Bed-Ins<\/span><\/i> instigate vital questions associated with the medium \u2014 what\u2019s public and what\u2019s private, and what constitutes a protest \u2014 hinged on a piece of furniture steeped in multifaceted meaning. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BbAJPFSgz3Y\/?tagged=rachelwhitereadexhibition","settings":{"width":"6"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" Both Anselm Kiefer and Rachel Whiteread have immortalised the bed as sombre sculptures evocative of death and memory. Kiefer\u2019s devastating installation <\/span>Die Frauen der Revolution<\/span><\/i><\/a> (\u201cThe Women of the Revolution\u201d) (1992\/2013) situates several single beds cast in lead in a space resembling a stark hospital ward, or a sepulchral chamber. Meanwhile, Whiteread has built an entire career out of defamiliarising everyday objects, including the bed. In <\/span>Untitled (Airbed II)<\/span><\/i><\/a> (1992), Whiteread fashions a mattress out of fleshy beige rubber, recalling the poignant absence of the body. Another work, <\/span>Shallow Breath<\/span><\/i> (1988) \u2014 a monumental cast of the underside of a mattress \u2014 was made in memory of her father; its concrete, blocky form implies a tomb or a mortuary slab.<\/span><\/p>\n