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Of the countless subjects rendered throughout the history of art, none have been more popular than the human body. Fragile Bodies: The Figure in Glass and Clay explores artwork from the FIA’s permanent collection by contemporary artists who have taken the human form as their subject. Whether they are accurately replicating the proportions of the skeleton, its musculature, and details, or presenting something more fluid and abstract, each artist captures one of the most enduring themes in art. 

Whether they are modeling faces out of clay or creating arms, legs, and torsos with molten glass, each artist represents the human form in their own unique manner. The artworks in this exhibition—male and female, clothed and nude, young and old—illustrate the human form’s powerful symbolic potential to embody an idea, to express an ideal, or to embrace that which is vulnerable and human.