Since the 1940s at least, female bodies have been eroticised in advertising campaigns in order to provoke desires and sell products. By the 1990s, this tendency was escalating out of control. Highly eroticised female bodies were everywhere. Today, campaigns that promote and reinforce conventional notions of beauty are everywhere we look, on every surface. Have we over-sexualised the world around us? Have we lost sight of what’s beautiful, and what’s real? Advertising always reflects the social attitudes of the day, so by taking us on an extraordinary journey from the 1940s to the present, featuring 44 photographers in total—from Frank Horvat, to Julia Kennedy, to Jeanloup Sieff, to Ellen von Unwerth and beyond—‘Women on View: Aesthetics of Desire in Advertising’ presents an alternative history of capitalism in the 20th and 21st centuries.  

More information at: Chaussee 36