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about the photo |
Beauty Out of Damage was shot with a Canon F1 on 35 mm color negative film and printed by the artist in 1993. The photograph generated 12 awards (including a Pulitzer Prize Nomination) after appearing on the cover of the Sunday Magazine section of The New York Times on August 13, 1993. Subsequently The New York Times received an unusually high amount of letters to the editor, ranking it as one of the most controversial covers in its history. In addition to photography awards, the artist received numerous humanitarian awards including The Gilda Radner Award, Person of the Week (Peter Jennings World-Wide News) and Humanitarian of the Year Award. In the mid nineties Beauty Out of Damage became one of the most published pictures in the world appearing in hundreds of international publications, books and on TV shows and documentaries. TWENTY years since Beauty Out of Damage's debut, the image is still in demand: often published in scholarly and academic journals related to sociological issues on health, medicine, beauty and body image. In 2003 and again in 2011 LIFE Magazine included this photo in a special edition entitled "100 Photographs That Changed the World. The New York Times, in conjunction with the Aperture Foundation released "The Photographs" also in 2011. This book features Beauty Out of Damage amongst 250 of the most important photographs published in The New York Times Magazine in the past 30 years. In 2012 Semana Magazine (South America's version of Newsweek) chose Beauty Out of Damage as one of the most important images taken in the past 30 years for their 30th anniversary. On or about August 18th, 2013 CBS Sunday Morning is airing a tribute to both Matuschka and the image (Beauty out of Damage) that helped launch the breast cancer movement in 1993. Inside Edition showcased Beauty out of Damage on their program regarding a story about Angelina Jolie: aired Spring 2013. Beauty Out of Damage has been collected by numerous museums internationally and continues to be showcased in many exhibitions worldwide.
©Beauty Out of Damage is registered with the Library of Congress. All rights reserved. |
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BEAUTY OUT OF DAMAGE |
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| "It was not simply nudity that shocked early viewers of Edouard Manet¹s "Dejeuner sur l¹herbe." The tumble of clothing beside her make clear that the woman in the foreground has literally "stripped herself bare" before her male companions. And as though to add insult to injury, she stares boldly toward us, radiantly self-confident and perhaps even a trifle amused by the reactions she provokes. It is difficult to think of a work with a comparable power to weak bourgeois hypocrisies until, more than a century later, Matuschka broke topless taboos with her appearance on the cover of ³the New York Times Magazine.² In a breathtaking portrait of the artist produced after her mastectomy, an entire generation was sensitized to one of the greatest hush-hush conspiracies of the 20th Century. -Dr. David Galloway From "The Body in the 20th Century" "Her cover did more for Breast Cancer than anyone else in the last twenty-five years...." Carol Spiro, President Breast Cancer Action; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada "Oscar Wilde said one can either make a masterpiece or be one. Artist Matuschka has managed to do both." Linda Vaccariello Cincinnati Magazine, Ohio "I couldn't look away. The New York Times Magazine cover was the most significant image of the century. Beej Nierengarten-Smith St. Louis, MI "It wasn't just her damaged chest but her resilient dignity which was so powerful." Sandra Day O'Connor Supreme Court Justice, Breast Cancer Survivor "With her shocking post-mastectomy self-portrait Matuschka managed to create even more controversy than a certain performer whose name also begins with an M and ends with an A." Our Town New York, NY "The purpose of radical art is to raise the subjective dimensions of social problems. Matuschka did just that with her picture on the cover of the New" York Times Magazine. Brian J. Jones Sociology, Micro, Macro and Mega Structures Harcourt Brace, 1995 "The photo is shocking, provocative, riveting and long overdue" Pamela Rohland Reading Eagle, Pennsylvania "Matuschka's photograph is worth more than a thousand words. It deliberately leads the way to a shift in social values and historical perspective. It ignores taboos. Matuschka body has become a body politic, her art" subversive, an act of revolution. Nancy Baele The Ottawa Citizenc, August 22, 1993 "Matuschka's photographs help eradicate shame and take the wraps off of a taboo topic. If Matuschka's uncomfortable images can do that -- they're worth the discomfort." The Cincinnati Inquirer, Ohio "The photograph of the artist and activist Matuschka dispels the myth that men are the stronger sex. I have made copies of the image for all my male friends." Kirk Voisin Brooklyn, NY "In Beauty Out of Damage, Matuschka surrounds her wounded chest in the trappings of femininity. This photograph is stunning. It is both ironic in its parody of the feminine and because of its elegant veneer, reclaiming of the feminine for women who have had to adjust their identity because of breast cancer." Saundra Goldman Austin American-Statesman, Texas "What I most admire in your work is its beautiful treatment of such strong and "ugly" truths about our ways of seeing and standards of beauty... For women it is empowering. For men it challenges conventional readings of desire in a vitalizing way." Jennifer Fiore Columbia Student "Matuschka's art gets your attention, invades your space, makes you want to look away. But, can you afford to look away?" Diana Renfro Women' Voice, North Carolina "Art can function in any of four general realms: the personal, the political, the spiritual, or the aesthetic. And occasionally, it can demonstrate an integration of all fourS Matuschka's art is such work. It is hard to define and challenging to view. It includes extraordinary vulnerability, fierce anger. . . . and much beauty." Peter Schlessinger, Curator New Art Center "Here a new heroine is created for women; one who is strong, unafraid and unashamed. She is highly sexual in a revolutionary way; on her terms with one breast and one scar. The image strikes you, dares you. I was disturbed but also exhilarated. I felt something I never felt before- a new acceptance and love for the human body, with no beauty ideal attached to it." Kim Weinstein Hunter Envoy, New York "The intention of the Frauen Museum is to acknowledge the power of women as creators of culture, not as eternal victims nor as idealized female images. We also examine the underlying causes of women's conditions in society in order to understand and to expand our creative potential. Matuschka's work represents a courageous act which shocks at first glance. After further reflection we begin to see a beauty of strength and survival. We consider her work politically important since it demands that society takes the disease of breast cancer seriously." Kim Angels Fraun Museum "What makes a heroine? Someone who enters difficult battles and emerges victorious. Someone who challenges society's thinking and creates a new and higher standard then ever before. Someone who inspires, provides hope, encouragement and support to many many peopleS Matuschka is a women to admire, for her beauty, to thank, for her fierce bravery, and most especially, to honor, for her [heroism]." Leigh Silverman Director, Playwright Woman's Project and Productions |
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