Performed, sexualised, aged, sick, idealised, physical and political.
After the lecture today with Kate I watched the programme ‘Shock of the Nude’ with Mary Beard. It didn’t shock me, I’m not sure it was supposed to. I lost my way a little during the lecture but thankfully was able to re-read the power point presentation.
Mary meandered throughout historical images, paintings and sculptures of nudes. It was a mixture of male and female images beginning with a sculpture of Alison Lapper an artist, who is disabled and at the time was pregnant. I think this was meant to be a bit shocking and was big news in the early 2000s. I didn’t feel that way about it although I remember it well. I did think Lapper was quite brave but also remember that Demi Moore [actress] had produced a similar image when she was naked and pregnant in the 1990s but on the front of Vanity Fair, perhaps directed at a different audience? I quite liked how Mary sat for a life drawing, but especially where she was drawn to the one she felt had a younger look about her face. I can identify with that as a ‘Mature’ student.
I got a little confused on the whole subject of the nude this week. I understand that images of the naked form have been around for an extremely long time. The dilemma seems to be; is the image there to be explored? or is the image an exploitation of the subject for the artist’s/viewers benefit? The latter seems to scream from the mouths of women (and some men) everywhere, so much so that they have taken the matter into their own hands protesting in various guises from Guerrillagirls [www.guerrillagirls.com] whose protests are worldwide, to photographers who portray themselves and others with a direct message of ownership, Jemima Stehli, Jenny Saville, John Coplans and Jo Spence to name a few.
There is a wide opinion that traditional early paintings of nudes were primarily constructed for the pleasure of men and of course owning a painting by a competent artist would have been expensive so that reasoning would make sense, men had money. Voluptuous naked women gaze into the distance away from the artist as though just waiting to be adored, it feels a little like justifying having mild porn on the wall especially as women back then had very little control of anything in their daily lives.
Edouard Manet’s famous ‘Luncheon on the Grass’ was controversial even at the time it was painted in 1863. Displaying two fully clothed ‘gentlemen’ having lunch with two women, one naked and one semi-naked in the park, it was thought to give a nod to a huge problem of prostitution in Paris. This was itself was a taboo subject, but for the subject to be on a large canvas and mounted in a gallery for all to see did not go down well!
The art critic John Berger’s quote which begins ‘Men act and women appear’…(completed on the Power Point presentation) Makes no sense to me. I’m not sure if it is the time that quote is from [1970s] or Berger himself. I’ve watched ‘ways of seeing’ (Episode 2) three times.
I do however understand how he describes that women are being looked at and judged, either by others or by themselves, because at times I can feel that way myself in a variety of situations. But I also think the same can be applied to all genders now, not just women.
One of the women Berger spoke to in the episode said she felt that “we are always dressing up for a part, we all have a ‘uniform’ of one kind or another, women do this more than men always dressing to show the character they want to represent… the ‘mother’, the ‘working woman’, the ‘pretty young chick’.” “Nudity is a uniform. it’s saying I’m ready now for sexual pleasure, so you can’t identify nudity as being free”.
Some of Berger’s other comments and explanations of the art require a lot of thought which at the moment I’m finding more confusing than helpful if I’m being honest.
Kate asks us to name an artist who stands out, who’s work resonates with us individually….I can’t say I’ve found one I like who’s work is primarily the naked body. However my favourites from the start of last year are still Jane Bown, Vivian Maier, Richard Avedon in photography. I can’t say I am able to replicate any of their style of photography yet, but still find them inspiring and a lovely example of art.
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| Bown | Maier | Avedon |
The Body, nudes, sexualised, aged, sick, idealised, physical, performed and political covers such a wide area of art traditionally and photographically its quite difficult to condense into a blog… I feel I haven’t done it justice, but I gave a snapshot of some of the things we discussed in the lecture!