Tough and Tender

Tough and 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.