Tough & Tender

Friday 15 July until Sunday 16 October 2016

Tough & Tender reveals emotional vulnerability and yearning for connection. Art by a group of American and Australian artists from the 1960s to now explore the complexities of personal relations and individual expression – their work is intimate and raw.

Photographs by Warwick Baker, Larry Clark, Rozalind Drummond, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Collier Schorr reflect the formative identity of young adulthood and complexities of masculinity and gender, composed with sensitivity and candour. In ground-breaking performance art documented on video, Chris Burden’s physical trials strip back his own persona and the mythic ethos of manhood.

Specific works have been selected from broader oeuvres to create an atmosphere of revelation of subtle emotion and bodily sensation in portrait-related work.

Untitled (42nd Street Series), 1979
by Larry Clark

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Beno 2016 by Warwick Baker

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Nan and Brian in bed, New York City 1983 by Nan Goldin

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Koko & Kiko (42nd Street Series), 1980 by Larry Clark

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Video still from Documentation of Selected Works, 1971-74 by Chris Burden

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Vy (Cowsill) 2016 by Rozalind Drummond

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Spencer 2016, by Warwick Baker

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Untitled (42nd Street Series), 1979–80 by Larry Clark

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Hugh 2015, by Warwick Baker

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Benny (42nd Street Series), 1979–80 by Larry Clark

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View the full set of images

Rozalind Drummond

Tough & Tender

The photographs in Tough & tender by Rozalind Drummond evoke individual freedom and personal reflection.

Nan Goldin

Tough & Tender

The photographs by Nan Goldin in Tough and tender are warm images of heartache and hope.

Warwick Baker

Tough & Tender

The photographs in Tough and tender by Warwick Baker reveal intimate connections and moments of closeness.

Larry Clark

Tough & Tender

Larry Clark's black-and-white documentary images of young outsiders reveal raw feelings.

Dominik, First Tour, Backnang 2000 by Collier Schorr

Collier Schorr

Tough & Tender

This is the first time Collier Schorr's photographs, which explore gender and identity, have been shown in Australia.

Chris Burden

Tough & Tender

In the video in Tough and tender Chris Burden narrates his performance artworks characterised by focused attention to mind over physical body.

Follow curator Chris Chapman on Instagram

Dr. Chris Chapman's Instagram account is inspiration for the exhibition Tough & Tender.

Related people

Dr Christopher Chapman

Postcard

Friends

Warwick Baker’s photos of his friends are intimate. They hold a stillness that allows their subjects to be at ease.

Postcard

Joyful sadness

Rozalind Drummond’s photographs in the exhibition Tough and tender let us bring our imagination to the act of looking.

Magazine article, Portrait 52

Shop Talk

Angus and the arbiters talk (photo) shop for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Postcard

Best buds

It’s important to have a best bud when you’re growing up. For many boys the transition from boyhood through adolescence is defined by wanting to fit in.

Postcard

Danger boy

I didn’t ever meet the American artist Chris Burden but about 20 years ago I wrote to him. I was after the loan of some photographic prints of his most famous performance: he had arranged for a friend to fire a bullet so it would graze his arm.