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| Jeff Koons, Llona on top (Rosa Background) oil inks on canvas 96 x 144 inches 1990 |
Nudes are nothing new in the world of
art, the human form has been depicted since cave paintings and
perfected through Roman sculpture and the Renaissance. The
modern Nude made a splash with the help of photography and Edouard
Manet's Dejeuner sur l'herbe.
Bringing the form into the everyday and purposely realigning the
audience with the reality of the model as present and meaningful.
Nor
is it rare to see the artist as a subject and weighted content, as proven in
Albrecht Durer's self portrait or much later with The House with the Ocean
View by Marina Abramovic. For
this post however, I want to focus on the contemporary use of the
nude artist combo as a tool specifically in the work of Alia Magda
Elmahdy, Terrell Moore, and Danny Guthrie.
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| Danny Guthrie, Pyrolater, Photograph 2010 |
However, the intimacy produced by proximity in the
photographs and relationship to his models seem to produce aversion
reminiscent of the before mentioned Dejeuner sur l'herbe.
In the sense that like Manet,
Guthrie produced controversy over the realm in which the models exist
(Manet- everyday vs. Guthrie- Educational Institution).
Also, very
similar to drama over Sally Mann's use of her children; questioning
whether or not the artist used positions of power to produce nudes.
Reflecting on Mann as the mother to her subjects like Guthrie is the
Professor to his, meaning most importantly he holds their grades (or
life for college students).
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| Terrell Moore, Untitled #31, 60x36 ", mixed media on canvas |
Next
lets talk about Narcissism,
Terrell Moore's photography series of Terrell Moore nude, stained,
and on canvas. This is a pretty big leap from most of his Exhibited
work (except Bear a
similar exhibit with a model instead of him) that typically involve
the build up and reduction of collage through bleaching, tearing,
spitting, and painting. Usually ending up with a large cross like
structure made of exposed portions of discolored and recolored
advertisements or smut.
His process is overly expressive which
makes Narcissism even
more out of place among his norm as it is completely inflective of
him and him alone. Though unlike Guthrie I don't believe Moore was
looking for the shock value instead I see a period of self release.
He mentions when asked about his other works that he doesn't see his
creations as a channeling of himself or his being on canvas but
rather a result of a process. In Narcissism
Moore seems able to finally exploit himself on canvas in a bold
attempt to produce the bare reflection of himself in the Gallery.
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| Aliaa Magda al-Mahdy, Self Portrait, Photograph 2011 |
Lastly,
Alia Magda Elmahdy (New York Times, New Statesmen, CNN) a student from Ciro who recently posted a
self-portrait of herself on a blog that was taken down then reposted
on twitter. The Photograph ingeniously traps the content in question
between to alarmingly red focal points. Elmahdy has no disillusions
about the danger she has put herself in for the sake of critiquing
Islam and sexism, her boyfriend was imprisoned for 4 years after his
own blogs were found by Mubarak's regime.
The negative reactions
across the middle east also highlights the institutions debilitating
constructs towards women and artist exploring sex or sexuality. I
find it hard to imagine where Danny Guthrie or Terrell Moore or
even my own work fit in all this.
The
human form has proven to be an bold mode of expression that can
provoke, release, and even expose the artist themselves as well as
the audience. Seemingly vein like Jeff Koons, these artist truly
explore themselves within the realms they function and express their
needs as artist.
-Tyler Robarge
I loved this post especially the comparisons with Danny Guthrie and Sally Mann. I can understand the outrage with Mann using her minor children, where they have (seemingly) no choice but to participate. But Guthrie was using students who are old enough to know about giving thier consent to participate. Did those students have to fill out any forms? Was Guthrie's students from his classes or random srudents he recruited out of the department? And also you mention Jeff Koons and have a picture of him but you never mention what it was he did.
ReplyDelete-Serena Rangel
Serena, Guthrie does not recruit students in his own classes, he also works with colleagues and faculty members. He tends to just go up and ask students that e thinks might be interested in working with him, and what they are comfortable with doing and what they are not.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if he has them fill out forms, most likely im assuming he does. He can recruit students from his own department, just not those currently enrolled in his classes. He says he also has many students come up and volunteer without him having to even ask.
- Erin Davis
The Image of Jeff Koons is from 'made in heaven' a series were he posed with his wife llona. This series is what sparked my interest in this topic because Koons; like Moore and Al-Mahdy, it's completely different than any work pre or post. It seemed to me the each had a similar phase were they felt the need to become the overt subject.
ReplyDelete-Tyler Robarge