Viewers have the opportunity to explore their own bodily perspectives and see themselves as a vital part of the exhibition in Body Ego. Art critic Lucy Lippard organized an exhibition titled Eccentric Abstraction in 1966, bringing together artists who were setting the stage for a new art movement.

She coined the term “body ego” to describe the artists’ approach to material, form, and the physical sensation the work gives the viewer. “The work’s bodily presence,” Lippard stated, “was achieved through scale, spatial relation, physical orientation, and material.” Thus, the “bodies” Lippard examined were not those of the artists, but rather the bodies of the viewers and of the sculpture itself.

Spanning from the 1960s to the present, Body Ego includes works by more than ten female artists in the DMA’s collection and considers how abstract sculpture represents the human body, and the ways viewers relate to the objects through their own experiences and perception.