Louis Fratino has redefined the male gaze and how queer men and women are represented in nude art. [79] His pieces explore queer sexuality in both everyday and erotic formats. [80]

I have to admit, El Guardian caught us off guard. Created by Galician sculpture Ramon Conde, it “guards” the base of the path leading to the Tower of Hercules in La Coruna, Spain. One often cited book on the nude in art history is The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form by Lord Kenneth Clark, first published in 1956. The introductory chapter makes (though does not originate) the often-quoted distinction between the naked body and the nude. [5] 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. Vasari, Giorgio. "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lives Of The Most Eminent Painters Sculptors And Architects". www.gutenberg.org . Retrieved December 29, 2020. The nude—the unclothed or partially clothed human body—has been featured in European art for millennia. After 1400, with the waning of the Middle Ages, artists depicted nudes as increasingly three-dimensional, vibrant, and lifelike— in short, more immediate and real. They employed diverse means: in Italy through a return to the models of ancient Greek and Roman art, and in northern Europe through refinements to the technique of painting in oils that enabled painters to capture textures—of flesh, of hair, of the sparkle in an eye—with unprecedented truth to nature. In concert with new scientific approaches, artists across Europe studied nature—including the human body—with increasing specificity and deliberation. The Father of Contemporary Art, Marcel Duchamp, painted Nude Descending a Staircase. The piece was a sensation because of Marcel’s total rejection of conventional aesthetic standards in it. Initially, the painting was heavily criticised by his fellow Cubist painters who prohibited the piece from being exhibited on the grounds that "a nude never descends the stairs — a nude reclines." Despite their efforts to censor the piece, Nude Descending a Staircase has since become one of the most widely eulogised modern art pieces of all time!There is a strong sense of closeness between the two. Aside from the emotion, the two subjects’ forms are shown in amazing detail. Postiglione, Corey. "The Postmodern Nude". Brad Cooper Gallery. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012 . Retrieved February 22, 2013. The presentation of nudity in art has evolved dramatically throughout history, leading to an incredible array of artwork exploring themes of the body and socio-cultural identity. Moche Vessel Figures (c. 500 CE) by Unknown; Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons He says that the sculpture’s flaw is that the pinnacle of ecstasy is depicted as bodily pleasure. “The sculpture is immoral and sexual, which, according to the author of this paper, symbolizes Bernini’s own religiosity and morals”. The work of art displayed Bernini’s ability to produce a dramatic theatrical performance in which he combined holy and profane parts of the theater through the utilization of lighting effects, architectural features, and complex actor-audience connections. Bernini was able to make work that provokes powerful religious experiences and emotions by fusing these components of theater into his art.

Schjeldahl, Peter (June 9, 2008). "Funhouse: A Jeff Koons retrospective". The New Yorker . Retrieved February 24, 2013. Monaghan, Peter (January 2, 2011). "Unveiling the American Nude". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Neo-realist figurative artists such as Jenny Saville continue this dialogue today. Saville’s visceral, grotesque representations of women, resolutely painted in the vein of Lucian Freud, challenge modern expectations and ideas of the female body.This woman holding a child is one of over 200 sculptures by the famed Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. Located in Oslo at Vigeland Park, his various artworks depict the full range of the human life cycle from birth to old age. Helen Beard creates colourful and bright artwork in different mediums, from paintings, to needlepoint, to sculptures, depicting close ups of women in explicit, pornographic sexual positions. [75] Her pieces embody women feeling pleasured by their bodies, which contradicts the traditional male gaze nudes of women previously. [75]