General Forums >> Polls/Discuss Portfolios >> Nudity In Art
Nudity In Art
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Posted 5 months ago I wonder why, in today's society that is so entrenched in public sensuality, in film, advertising, music etc. that there is still present a stigma against the presentation of the nude human body in Art? When I have painted in this genre, I have been rejected at shows because they simply did not display nude paintings, as well as at galleries because they were not " the type of paintings we offer our clients". In years gone by, when it was a much more straight laced world we lived in, this was not the case, instead the human form was celebrated and seen as a wonderful subject for the artist to present. |
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| Posted 5 months ago The American public as a whole has a giant stick stuck up their ass right now! I see it when I am driving around the way drivers treat each other, it's really evident from what we have to put up with from out government. When I see some of the tv shows that are popular I just want to hurl! I believe the body should be celebrated and admired. I will admit I have to drag my brain out of the gutter now and then to appreciate nude art, but hey, its in a mans genetics right? |
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| Posted 5 months ago you said it yourself... our society is entrenched in sensuality... so a nude form will be looked at in a sensual way as opposed to an artistic way. Ink, Steel and PMS, that's what little girls are made of |
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| Posted 5 months ago I think you are both right, it is genetics to some degree, because we were formed the way we are for the express purpose of procreation, and as long as society is stuck with the idea that nudity is something un-natural, pornographic, or immoral we will have the same artist problems in painting nudes. It is funny though, I have seen beautiful renderings of fruits and flowers and vegetable etc. that with a studied eye can find the purposeful imaging of the human form in paintings, sculpture and even in advertising graphic design. Thank You Both for responding |
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| Posted 5 months ago When I was in St Martin, on the French side for the first time, my husband at the time could not wait to get to the beach.
If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen. --Loretta Girzatlis |
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| Posted 5 months ago You know, it is one of few things God gave us besides our free will to choose, our bodies are uniquely and entirely our own , there are no others like it, they truly are one of a kind. But we in our percieved wisdom have chosen to hide it, cover it up and not discuss it, that seems ludicrous to me. I am not for public nudity, but I am certainly not for the shame and stigma that comes with the expression of nudity in art.
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| Posted 5 months ago I don't know what happened.. I feel that the human body is a beautiful part of our natural being and that if presented respectably it should not be shunned, especially in art. |
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| Posted 5 months ago we're still a young counrty & those adolescent giggles will happen. we'll grow out of that eventually. |
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| Posted 5 months ago gekko says ...
I wish it was sooner than later. I cannot exhibit paintings of nudes where I live, (except in my gallery). I have to go at least 20 miles to do so.
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| Posted 5 months ago have a show in your house - go outside the city limits. let the happiness in. beauty is art and art is naked beauty. your work is sublime - it is your duty to share it with everyone. shine on and be proud. Electric flesh-arrows ... traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears.
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| Posted 4 months ago When nudes were presented in art in centuries past, many times they were commissioned for pornographic purposes under the veil of high art. These days we have pornographic material in so many other forms that we don't need to hide it in classical poses and oil paint. It's in our mass media, it's in our marketing and advertising approach to just about everything, it's in magazines, books, TV, theater, music, and the internet (let's not get started on the internet). In short, there is such a proliferation of highly sexualized material that we naturally think in terms of the lowest common denominator when we think of the naked human form -- pornography. The result is a country of emotionally stunted individuals in regards to sex and nudity. We don't know how to approach the topic with our children and as a result the cycles continues. --Jernell |
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| Posted 4 months ago abuxbaum says ...
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| Posted 4 months ago I'm in if I could paint you people while you're looking at the art at my house/gallery. |
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| Posted 4 months ago As artist we will always encounter strange behavior from the public.
Look how people are raised. When I was a kid, about 5, I walked into a church and was told I was a sinner. I didn't do anything yet. People are told to be ashame of everything human. Don't do this, that is wrong blah blah blah..so no wonder some people are rejecting the nude. They do it out of fear I believe. Thank God we are artist and see things differently. The people who ban us really need us. And we need people to reject us or challenge us so that we can put more piss and vinegar into creating so that we can hit them on the head and say LOOK! Get out of my dreams..and into my car....VAVOOOM! |
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| Posted 4 months ago SonyaFe says ... As artist we will always encounter strange behavior from the public. really? I always thought that as artists we should BE the strange behavior in public! Ink, Steel and PMS, that's what little girls are made of |
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| Posted 4 months ago It has been my experience that most artist are the most normal people in the world and everyone else is insane. Get out of my dreams..and into my car....VAVOOOM! |
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| Posted 4 months ago SonyaFe says ... It has been my experience that most artist are the most normal people in the world and everyone else is insane. I'm thinking artists make up less than 50% of the population... so we'd be in the minority... so our 'normalcy' would be strange... right? lol Ink, Steel and PMS, that's what little girls are made of |
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| Posted 4 months ago AHHH!! MATH! LOGIC! REASON!! Screw this, I'm gonna go get nekkid and paint in public. Anyone want to start a pool on how long it takes before I get arrested? Seriously though, it is a shame that a simple naked body is enough to prevent a painting from being displayed in a lot of venues. At least in the States. From what I gather, Europe doesn't seem to have this problem. |
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| Posted 4 months ago JosephManutti says ...
where? Ink, Steel and PMS, that's what little girls are made of |
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| Posted 4 months ago bluestarr says ...
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| Posted 4 months ago my house if full of nude paintings and drawings and photos. my son's friends are always intrigued. hahaha the parents have varying reactions. angela Electric flesh-arrows ... traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears.
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| Posted 4 months ago They are not "boobies" as you so rudely put it. They are headlights that just incidentally look like boobies.
~~I am the missing piece to the puzzle not yet brought into being.~~ Stephen Michael Arnold |
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| Posted 3 months ago
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| Posted 3 months ago A nude human being IS art. "To love another person is to see the face of God."
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| Posted 3 months ago wamman says ...
Oh, yeah! They will stun and blind ya for a moment huh? ~~I am the missing piece to the puzzle not yet brought into being.~~ Stephen Michael Arnold |
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| Posted 3 months ago Topic got a little off track. I thought my community was provincial. I have to travel 20 miles to be able to display a nude in public. Even then its hard. Metro areas are getting just as bad in some ways. Even in Britain - giving warnings that some nude subjects might offend. At least they show them. Klimt was daring in his day, I guess he still is. |
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| Posted 3 months ago one of the reasons galleries and museums are scared to show nudes is because of recent history. maplethorp and the late jesse helms... we as artists in the united states have to educate the public. the public is so afraid of crossing "that" line of porn and artistic expression they do not know hwere to turn next. in italy, nudes are everywhere in the public domain. one can not walk 10 feet witout bumping into one in a piazzia or church or yes even a gallery. the art schools have no problem with live models for their students. even the Bible is full of nudes. the good thing about being a young country is we are still learning our baby steps, the bad thing about being a young country we ain't walking fast enough. education is the key. start at home with your own kids. talk to boy scouts and girl scout troops. I did. and yes the little boys giggled about the boobies they saw, but after a few seconds they moved on to mutt's urnial and became amazed about that. educate people education.... |
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| Posted 3 months ago " one of the reasons galleries and museums are scared to show nudes is because of recent history. maplethorp and the late jesse helms..." I think that is an old excuse to keep cutting funding for the NEA. The USA spends much less in the national budget for the arts than any other "developed" country, even though it has been proved that arts are a money maker for communities.
I spent a Summer in Florence, so I know what you are talking about edie. If an American did not want thir kids to see a nude, they would have to be blindfolded most of the time, I make that comment to people when I get resistance to nudes sometimes as a joke,but its not really a joke. I get tired of the whole problem of showing nudes, new country or not. My nudes are popular when I can show them. But its hard getting venues. You are right though edie about education for kids-to bad you can't do it in the schools. |
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| Posted 3 months ago what's really hard is educating the parents. i had an exhibition in a very small town just south of where i live, and for the most part peple were very receptive, then along came one woman with her 9 year old daughter and she COVERED the girls eyes. i nearly died. this was an educated woman who had taken several art clases herself, so she was not some bohunk who did not know any better. she then demanded that i remove my images from public veiwing because she was embarrassed. HER? i felt sorry for the daughter, and the mother's reaction was totally uncalled for. she created a situation in which she behaved badly and her child is now a nun.....no, but she should have taken the time and explained the nudes. (you could baely see the bottom section of a breast and the hair covered the rest.... come on now, you can not tell me she did not overreact. this was several yars ago and now everytime i see the mother, she makes some snide comment about "my naked ladies".
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| Posted 2 months ago The problem is also very alive today in The Netherlands.... yes... The Netherlands small country with loads of liberties untill the moment an Christian-Democratic (forget that last part.. let's call it Christian) goverment was elected. Slowly some of our artistic freedoms were limited and this year a exposition of paintngs of nudes( no nothing shocking, just an celebration of the naked human body) was closed down. It is not just a religious thing, it is a culural conjuncture. As long as the human body is considered by large groups as downright dirty and forbidden or (as opposite) as a sexual object for ploeasure or commercial purposes only, art will play a minor role. In every culture there were waves in which the naked body was considered art and then there were waves in which it was a big no-no to show a naked body. In the Netherlands (and I guess in the US) we are in the downside of the cultural-promoted nude wave, but that also implies that things will turn gor the better. |
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