On the Nude: Looking Anew at the Naked Body in Art

280 Pages·2021·12.086 MB·English

by  Nicholas Chare (editor), Ersy Contogouris (editor)

On the Nude
This book provides a timely reappraisal of one of the most enduring subjects in the
history of art – the naked body.
Beginning with reflections on what denuding entails and means, the volume then
shifts to a consideration of body politics in the context of Black political empower-
ment, disability, and queer and Indigenous politics of representation. Themes includ-
ing the animal nude, the male nude, and nudity in childhood are also considered.
The final section examines the nude from the perspective of the artist and the artist’s
model.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, comparative litera-
ture, cultural studies, gender studies, queer studies, screen studies, and trans studies.
Nicholas Chare is Professor of Art History at the Université de Montréal, Canada.
Ersy Contogouris is Assistant Professor of Art History at the Université de Montréal,
Canada.
Cover: Dayna Danger, Big ’Uns – Jaz, 2017, Digital Photograph. Courtesy of the artist.
Routledge Research in Gender and Art
Routledge Research in Gender and Art is a new series in art history and visual studies,
focusing on gender, sexuality, and feminism. Proposals for monographs and edited
collections on this topic are welcomed.
Class, Gender and Sexuality in Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy
Valerie Hedquist
Feminist Subjectivities in Fiber Art and Craft
Shadows of Affect
John Corso Esquivel
Artist-Parents in Contemporary Art
Gender, Identity, and Domesticity
Barbara Kutis
Feminist Visual Activism and the Body
Edited by Basia Sliwinska
Modern Women Artists in the Nordic Countries, 1900–1960
Edited by Kerry Greaves
Transnational Perspectives on Feminism and Art, 1960-1985
Edited by Jen Kennedy, Trista E. Mallory and Angelique Szymanek
French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956
Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference
Mary Kelly
Iconic Works of Art by Feminists and Gender Activists
Mistress-Pieces
Edited by Brenda Schmahmann
On the Nude
Looking Anew at the Naked Body in Art
Edited by Nicholas Chare and Ersy Contogouris
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Gender-and-Art/book-series/RRGA
On the Nude
Looking Anew at the Naked Body in Art
Edited by
Nicholas Chare and Ersy Contogouris
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of Nicholas Chare and Ersy Contogouris to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chare, Nicholas, editor. | Contogouris, Ersy, 1990- editor.
Title: On the nude : looking anew at the naked body in art / edited by
Nicholas Chare and Ersy Contogouris.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Routledge research in
gender and art | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021030186 (print) | LCCN 2021030187 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367504595 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367504601 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003049968 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Nudity. | Nude in art.
Classification: LCC BJ1500.N8 O5 2022 (print) | LCC BJ1500.N8 (ebook) |
DDC 128/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030186
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030187
ISBN: 978-0-367-50459-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-50460-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04996-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003049968
Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgements xi
List of Contributors xii
1 On the Nude: Addressing Old and New Perspectives 1
NICHOLAS CHARE AND ERSY CONTOGOURIS
PART I
On Denuding 21
2 The Dagenham Idol: A Neolithic Wooden Figurine Denuded 23
NICHOLAS CHARE AND NATHANAEL PRICE
3 Poking Out ‘the Soft Part’: The Raw and the Cooked Body
in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 41
MARIA MARGARONI
4 Discursive Blurring in Representations of Classical Rapes and Abductions 55
ERSY CONTOGOURIS
5 Writing and Nudity: Nelly Arcan’s and Vanessa Beecroft’s Girls 67
MARTINE DELVAUX
PART II
Body Politics and the Nude 77
6 Images of Solace: Looking beyond Violence in Cassils’s Art 79
I. MILAN CAIL
7 S[H]E: Black Body Politics and Gender 90
LISA E. FARRINGTON
vi Contents
8 Un-shaming the Greenlandic Female Body: The Indigenous
Nude in Performance Art 107
KIRSTEN THISTED
9 Watching One’s Back: Self-Portraits of Disabled Women’s
Backs as Provocative and Protective 118
ANN MILLETT-GALLANT
PART III
Photography and the Nude 129
10 Nan Goldin’s Sag Harbor Pictures 131
EMMA WILSON
11 Creating a Space and a (Visual) Language in the Work of Laura Aguilar 143
ANN MARIE LEIMER
12 The Animal Nude: Pony Play and Deborah Bright’s Being & Riding 155
VALÉRIE BIENVENUE AND NICHOLAS CHARE
PART IV
The Male Nude 173
13 Queeriosity: Does Hair Have a Gender? Around Del LaGrace Volcano,
Daniela Comani, Katarzyna Kozyra, Ana Mendieta, and Cindy Sherman 175
FRÉDÉRIQUE VILLEMUR
14 Art, Aesthetics, and Male Genitalia 187
RICHARD LEPPERT
15 Imperfect Beauty: Nudity, Classicism, Race, and Homoerotic Desire
in the Male Nudes of George Dureau 203
JAMES SMALLS
PART V
On Being Nude 215
16 A Short Story about a Big Healing (Extracts) 217
JOANNA FRUEH
17 Looking beyond the Image: Cassils in Conversation with Nicholas Chare
and Ersy Contogouris 225
CASSILS
Contents vii
18 Ways of Connecting with the Secret World behind the Life Model:
Sarah R. Phillips in Conversation with Nicholas Chare and
Ersy Contogouris 241
SARAH R. PHILLIPS
19 Notes Introducing ‘(Unfinished) Soliloquy of a Nude’ 248
KATHLEEN G. WILLIAMSON
20 (Unfinished) Soliloquy of a Nude 250
JOANNA FRUEH
Index 252
Figures
2.1 The Dagenham Idol, c.2200 BCE. Scotch Pine, approximately
19½ × 3½ × 4 in. Photograph by Nicholas Chare. 24
2.2 Detail of the Dagenham Idol. Photograph by Nicholas Chare. 30
2.3 Detail of the Dagenham Idol. Photograph by Nicholas Chare. 31
2.4 Carving a replica of the Dagenham Idol. Image courtesy of
Nathanael Price. 34
2.5 Nathanael Price, replica of the Dagenham Idol. Image
courtesy of Nathanael Price. 35
7.1 Romare Bearden, Reclining Nude, 1979. Collage on board,
15½ × 23½ in. Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of
Art Permanent Collection. Gift of Walter O. Evans and Mrs. Linda
J. Evans. © Romare Bearden Estate. 91
7.2 Archibald Motley, Jr., Brown Girl After the Bath, 1931. Oil on
canvas, 48¼ × 36 in. St. Louis Art Museum. Gift of an anonymous
donor, object #2007.015. © through Bridgeman Images, UK. 92
7.3 Elizabeth Catlett, Homage to Black Women Poets, 1984. Mahogany.
Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts. © Estate of Elizabeth
Catlett/Licensed by VAGA, New York. 94
7.4 Faith Ringgold, Help: Slave Rape Series #15, 1973. Acrylic tanka
on canvas with fabric border, 87 × 48 in. © Faith Ringgold.
Collection of the Artist, Englewood, NJ. 95
7.5 Renee Cox, Yo Mama’s Last Supper, Flippin’ the Script series,
1996. 5 panels (detail of panel 3), each 31 × 31 in., archival
digital c-prints. Collection of the Artist, New York. © Renee Cox. 98
7.6 Mequitta Ahuja, Performing Painting: Portrait, 2016. Oil on
canvas, 84 × 72 in. © Mequitta Ahuja. 102
7.7 Janet Taylor Pickett, The Skin We’re In, 2016. Collage, approx
30 × 42 in. © Janet Taylor Pickett. 103
8.1 Photograph of Jessie Kleemann’s performance at the Aarhus art
building, June 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Jo Dam Kӕrgaard. 108
8.2 Pia Arke, Arctic Hysteria IV, 1997, photomontage. Courtesy of the
Pia Arke estate. 111
8.3 Photograph of Jessie Kleemann’s performance at the Aarhus art
building, June 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Jo Dam Kӕrgaard. 114
Figures ix
9.1 Ann Millett-Gallant, Ann’s Strong Back, 2014. Acrylic on canvas,
20 × 16 in. Courtesy of the artist. 121
9.2 Ann Millett-Gallant, Ann’s Back in Rotation, 2019. Acrylic on
canvas, 12 × 12 in. Courtesy of the artist. 125
9.3 Ann Millett-Gallant, Ann in the Garden with Vines, 2019. Acrylic
on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. 126
11.1 Laura Aguilar, Sandy, 1984. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 10 in.
© Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. 145
11.2 Laura Aguilar, Clothed/Unclothed #30, 1994. Gelatin silver
print, 20 × 16 in. each. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. 147
11.3 Laura Aguilar, Nature Self-Portrait #5, 1996. Gelatin silver print,
16 × 20 in. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. 150
11.4 Laura Aguilar, Grounded #106, 2006–2007. Archival pigment print,
22 × 17 in. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. 151
12.1 Charles Archer, Speckles and Miss Ann, Folsom Street Fair, 2016.
Digital Photograph. Courtesy of the artist. 156
12.2 Rebecca Wilcox, Tender Moments, 2007. Model: Penny Barber.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Wilcox of Wilcox Works. 157
12.3 Deborah Bright, Jailbait, 1997. Ilfochrome photograph, 41 × 28.5 in.
From the Being & Riding series. Courtesy of the artist. 163
12.4 Deborah Bright, Lone Ranger, 1997. Ilfochrome photograph,
32 × 20 in. From the Being & Riding series. Courtesy of the artist. 165
12.5 Deborah Bright, Bitch Angel, 1996. Ilfochrome photograph,
30.75 × 42 in. From the Being & Riding series. Courtesy of
the artist. 166
13.1 Katarzyna Kozyra, Still from Men’s Bathhouse, Venice Biennale,
1999. Five-channel video installation, synchronized loop, 4:3 PAL.
(https://www.biweekly.pl/article/1835-kozyra%E2%80%99s-got-
the-power.html?print=1) 178
14.1 Anonymous Hellenistic, Barberini Faun [a.k.a. The Sleeping Faun],
c.200 BCE. Marble, 215 cm long. Munich, Glyptothek, Staatliche
Antikensammlung, H.213.4(84). Photo: Vanni/Art Resource,
New York. 192
14.2 Lucian Freud, Naked Man with Rat, 1977–1978. Canvas,
91.5 × 91.5 cm. Perth, State Art Collection, Art Gallery of
Western Australia. © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images. 193
14.3 Robert Longo, Sword of the Pig, 1983. Mixed media on wood
relief, paper, and aluminium, 248 × 588 × 51 cm. London, Tate
Gallery, inv. no. T03782, presented by the Patrons of New Art
through the Friends of the Tate Gallery. Photo Tate Gallery,
London/Art Resource, New York. Courtesy of the artist and
Metro Pictures. © Robert Longo/Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. 195
14.4 John Singer Sargent, Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller,
1917–1920). Canvas, 125.7 × 84.5 cm. Boston, Museum of
Fine Arts, acc. no. 1986.60, Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman
Fund. Photo © 2006 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 198