Nude

2019

Multi-Layer Linoleum Reduction Relief Print

11.5”x15.5

The nude body has been a staple of fine art throughout history. Masterworks ranging from the statue of David by Michelangelo, La Maja by Goya, Olympia by Manet and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso have used the nude human form to exemplify beauty, along with many other human qualities or emotions. But recently the conversation surrounding the fine art nude has changed, along with a movement of equality and political correctness. Considering historically famous artists have been mostly men, creating artwork for once again a mostly male audience there is an unavoidable question of whether or not the female nude specifically should be considered inherently sexist.

The term male gaze is defined as an “act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.” Here is where there is a large grey area, and a discussion to be had, because I don’t believe that that is the only lense to see the nude body through. For example, Manet’s Olympia depicts a woman who was likely a prostitute seemingly reclaiming her sexuality and sexual independence and throwing it back in the face of the (likely male) viewer.

In this print my intention was to present my model as a strong and independent woman, while also respectfully admiring her physical beauty. It is an act of empowerment rather than a predatory one. While she is nude, it is not sexualized. In a book on the nude in art history, Kenneth Clark states that “to be naked is to be deprived of clothes, and implies embarrassment and shame, while a nude, as a work of art, has no such connotations.” My model is shameless, strong, and beautiful, and that is how I wanted to represent her.