Script: This episode is inspired by a recent presentation I led at the New Britain Museum of American Art, an exploration of the Reclining Female Nude Figure through both artistic traditions in Western Art and through the lens of female artists. Human Body is the central subject for art since classical antiquity. We will focus on the reclining nude female figure in Western Art—through the lens of artistic traditions– and the response by female artists, late 19th, early 20th century Suzanne Valadon, 20th century painter Alice Neel and contemporary black female artist Mickalene Thomas (she deconstructs stereotypes and other traditions in Western art). We will consider concerns by feminist artists and historians in the way in which women have been portrayed—what my hope is what you will experience, what you will see, what surfaces in the portrayals of the female, both the reclining nude figure and nude figure by women is the female experience. From the collection at the New Britain Museum of American Art, we will explore the female nude by American women through the media of sculpture, painting, drawing (charcoal), photograph. At the end of the show, a celebration of a contemporary painter Elisa Valenti
Concern for feminist artists and historians was the way in which women had been portrayed throughout the history of Western Art—Representations of the female figure, including the nude figure have been the prerogative of Western male artists since the Renaissance; it is here where we will begin our journey—what follows is a growing consciousness that the “female nude as created and defined by male artists typically becomes an object for the spectator’s gaze–often completely open to male voyeurism. The implied relationship formed is one in which the female nude has no individuality or power but is instead a passive object of sexual desire. It is during the Renaissance that the nude female figure lying down or reclining was established, recalling ancient Greek emphasis on beauty and in some cases the sensuality of the human, nude form. Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538.
She is conceptually perfected ideal person—vision of health, youth, geometric clarity, organic equilibrium. Titian’s expressive brushwork, dynamic composition, brilliant coloring produce an image of pronounced sensuality. The effect is highly naturalistic, visual seduction—in theme and technical execution that endures as an influential prototype for depictions of the female nude in Europe. She is idealized..what she does not celebrate is human variety. What we all can agree on is that she is beautiful, her gestures provocative, one hand covers her pubic area, at once modest and inviting—note her smile as she stretches languidly on her couch in a spacious palace, her flesh glows, her golden hair with flawless skin–in some interpretations she represents a bride welcoming her husband into their lavish bedroom. In the right hand corner we see two servants removing or replacing a gown in a cassone (chest, these chests were always made in pairs also refer to matrimony. Cassoni were traditionally commissioned by the bridegroom on the occasion of his wedding and intended for the storage of clothing, particularly his wife’s trousseau. Another reference to marriage is the dog that dozes at Venus’ feet, his peaceful slumber is indicative that person who has just entered is not an intruder; he is master of his household.
Despite these allusions to marriage, there is also scholarship that suggests or rather persists this Venus is pornographic—her direct gaze has been characterized as an unambiguous sexual invitation, she was commissioned by an aristocrat whose real intention is cloaked in classical mythology. We do not know her identity. Here she becomes a mythic beauty she becomes a sacred and profane beauty or Venus herself, or perhaps the embodiment of beauty. Let’s travel through time, over 300 years later, for almost the first time since the Renaissance a painting of the reclined female nude is represented as a real woman in probable surrounding. The French artist, he was one of the leading artists in Impressionism and also part of the Realism art movement Manet, “Olympia, ” 1864
Olympia is a portrait of an individual—placed on her naked body is a head with so much individual character. She was composed on the basis of Venus of Urbino. She reclines on a white bedding; —Manet takes the classical subject and modernizes the reclining nude. How does he do this? Manet does idealize the figure; she is on display. Her body is more angular and flat compared to the soft curves of the Titian work. Her hand covers her pubic area, but not in the same provocative manner, her hand just rests there, she doesn’t appear to try to cover herself. She stares out at the viewer in an assertive way—she expresses a colder indifference; she is not docile. Olympia is not a mythological or biblical figure, she is an everyday woman, more scandalously, she is a prostitute. Manet breaks the artistic rules, challenging the long academic conventions of the female nude figure. He turns over the apple cart of traditional painting===that being said, his portrayal is composed through the lens of a male gaze, of the male perspective.
Let’s explore the reclined female nude through the lens of a woman artist—Suzanne Valadon, a revolutionary artist of the female nude. It has been said, Valadon developed her own aesthetic outside the bounds of male models of creativity. She lived and worked at “the absolute epicenter of artistic Paris in its heyday. Born in 1865 and died in Paris in 1938. She was a model and friend to some of the most famous artists, includes the Impressionist painter Renoir, Degas before she became a painter herself in 1893. She forged a career in a man’s world, challenged the conventions of the nude, becoming a groundbreaking artist in her own right. She said about the male masters, “I had great masters. I took the best of them of their teachings, of their examples, I found myself, I made myself, and I said what I had to say.”
This is evident in the painting it is part of the collection at the The Met Museum–“Reclining Nude,”(oil on canvas, 1928 25×31). Valadon carves a new critical space in which to consider a woman’s body. Her portraits are based on real emotions and actual physical experience—she encourages women to reclaim their own viewpoint.The nude female figure was a subject rarely chosen by women painters at the time. In this work, the subject “confronts the viewer through her gaze, notice the more shallow picture plane, yet she obscures her body, crossing her legs and covering her breasts. What does her expression tell us, the viewer? She does not appear “super stoked to have people staring at her naked body and as result she just watches us watching her in a weird and awkward watching circle. In a way, the woman sticks-it-to-the-man by not passively sprawling and letting him run his eyes wherever he wants as was allowed by reclining female nudes of the past.
The Blue Room, 1923, oil, 35×46 painting is a self portrait—I chose it, obviously she is not nude, but she is reclined. Full-figured, voluptuous, intelligent woman, lounging on a daybed with books close at hand. A cigarette dangles from her mouth—she wears loose green and white striped bottoms and pink camisole. Notice her gaze—it is off to the right, she is unaware of the viewer and instead lost in her own thoughts. She is relaxed both with her own body and her artistic talents. She is self-assured, content, and unlike Olympia is she not sexually available. Here we see the complexities of the woman, not just a two-dimensional character.
Alice Neel, very aware of Western traditions in art, composes the first reclining nude pregnant figure “Pregnant Maria” (1964, oil on canvas, 32×47—part of the collection at the Met Museum)“Pregnant Maria” is the earliest in the series of pregnant nudes. Maria’s body, small with a dark complexion is spread languidly across her white bedding sheets. She is not posed for display she has arranged herself for her own comfort. One arm rests along the contours of her voluptuous body with plumb belly and full yet somewhat sagging breasts; the other arm is bent, her closed hand rests against the side of her face. Her hair is tousled waves framing her face and neck. Her legs are crossed- Her gaze is direct, perhaps even confrontational– she unabashedly exudes this kind of confidence. There is something sensuous about Maria, but she is definitely not a sex object. What is compelling is the painting “Pregnant Maria” it is said is “Neel’s answer to Manet’s Olympia.
Let’s compare women: Both are naked, but in Maria what is absent is the sexual tension of the male gaze. Her confidence, her attitude, the ways she directly looks at us, the viewer, defies what we give to the portrait of eroticism.” Neel “reorients the eroticism of the female nude”
Let’s compare Pregnant Maria and a work from the New Britain collection, “Prelude,” bronze sculpture by Marianna Pineda (1957, 29x59x21) A woman in labor; solitary figure stretched out partially nude, the work features fabric of a skirt and in the tie of that skirt the woman has her hands wrapped—we see personal and the physical struggle with the forthcoming birth of her son.
Mickalene Thomas in the painting “Marie: Femme noire nuecouchee; Marie: Nude black woman lying on a couch” acrylic paint and oil enamel on wood panel, 96×120, from 2012 composes and reformulates the female figure through expressions or images of the black female body by black women. Like Alice Neel, Thomas is very aware of the traditions of figures in Western Art and art history. Here she remakes Olympia—what we see is a nude black woman lying on a couch, she turns away from the viewer, in contrast to the confrontational stare of Manet’s courtesan. Posing languidly on a floral patterned sofa, old prints overhead suggestive of dreams, amid glittering jewels and dramatic animal prints, she projects new connotations of glamour—the woman appears more as indifferent than as a paid consort—she has casual self confidence, note the bouquet as it slips to the floor from her half open hand. Our interest lies not its relationship with the viewer, but with the figure itself. We see a sense of self. (Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet to Matisse to Today—Denise Murrell)
Polly Thayer, “Circles,”1908, oil on canvas On a large canvas, we see the back of a fully nude woman sitting on flowing, silken robe or drapery, she is alone and her back faces us–, a tiger’s rug is beneath her feet. Her body curves, from her dainty shoulders, the eye is led to her small waist that opens to her full hips, her left leg is fully exposed, we see a dimple in her upper thigh. Her auburn hair is pulled up in a loose fitting bun. What is striking about the painting is the background—it is textured with overlapping circles of purple and lilac. “Their roundness is echoed in the roundness of the figure’s body, the shape of the tiger’s head, and the sweeping position of her robe, all guiding the viewer’s eye from one rounded form to another.” Thayer demonstrates that she was a highly accomplished proponent of academic realism, yet asserts her artistic individuality by creating a “female nude that is uniquely elegant and refined yet physically imposing and intensely sensuous.” Within the traditions of the academic, Thayer, the woman, creates a sense of eroticism by juxtaposing textures and designs.”
I think that the choice to have the woman turn away from the viewer, the choice of not seeing her identity or meeting her gaze holds our focus, our attention not just on the figure,but the surrounding patterns and textures, from the circles, to the lush tiger rug to the white and midnight blue drapery—all these lead our eye to the curves and sensuality of the woman’s body, a body that in its relatable ordinariness is extraordinary. Effective visual strategy
Let’s turn our attention to a nude figure, smaller work by artist Lee Krasner, 1939, charcoal on paper, “NudeStudy” It is purely an abstracted view of the female nude, rendered in the Cubist mode—Krasner presents multiple viewpoints of its subject, not a single, linear viewpoint like we see in traditional paintings, like the Thayer painting. This is accomplished by creating more angles and planes, Cubists works often seem to be made up of geometric shapes. For Krasner, “The nude is the vehicle for the investigation of abstraction and the declaration of artistic independence from ways of representing three dimensional forms in use since the Renaissance. Instead of embracing traditions, she dismantles traditions. Her female nude is composed of “Arcs and circular lines suggest the female nude’s contours alternate rhythmically with rectilinear lines and shapes that imply the fluctuating space around her. “
There is a sense of movement in her figures; Krasner did these studies when she was a student of Hans Hoffman, the most influential teacher of his day in New York. She worked from live models, transforming the three dimensional into a series of planes that “evolve from the constant erasing and reworking of the lines. Thus the work is more about the process of creation than about the product itself.” In Krasner we experience not just the breadth and beauty or the sensuality of the body as we did with Thayer, but about the creative process, it becomes paramount over the “product itself,” we experience within those geometric shapes the “creative mind of the artist at work.”
Side Note: Lee Krasner was the wife of Abstract Expressionist pioneer Jackson Pollock who really came into her own as an artist after Pollock’s death. In 1956 she moved into the barn studio at their home near East Hampton, Long Island, increased the scale and intensity of her work, and tapped the more personal content that had been repressed and dormant during her marriage. During the next quarter century, Krasner drove dynamically through a number of style shifts, achieving at her peak a powerful, dramatic, and at times disturbing imagery based on the forces of nature. Krasner’s cubist background had given her a strong sense of how to manage her pictorial field as a whole. She should not be dismissed as a minor talent, working under the shadow of a great artist. Rather, her early work tells us that she was a deeply committed artist struggling with various styles and concepts long before she met Pollock. “The Seasons,” 1957 (oil and house paint)—new ways of capturing her inner experiences.
Mission Chair: Mary Beth McKenzie Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 42 x 64 in. McKenzie says about her practice, “I paint people I know and have looked at a lot already. I always work directly from life, partly because I really enjoy interacting with the person in from of me, but also because I love having a direct response to shape and color. I love form—and nothing is more beautiful than human form.” What we, the result of this approach are a psychological moment that reveals within the sitter. Also notice the light, painterly approach.
The nude figure in a photograph, Judith Thorpe’s “Femme #8”42 x 30 in—Thorpe is concerned with a woman’s body and the process of aging. Using the throwaway parts of 4″x 5″ Polaroid images that she collected for several years, she scanned the Polaroid remnants into her computer and created new images that deal with the form and meaning of the photograph and the expressive issues of change, loss, rebirth and aging. Her work combined traditional and digital components of photography. Thorpe notes: “I feel that these latent (Polaroid) images are like mistakes, thought to be unusable or incorrect, but in actuality they are a new direction for my work to take as I question representation and culture through my own body.” We don’t see the face, our gaze is consumed with the figure.
End this talk with a contemporary female artist, part of the current New York scene and her exploration of the nude figure using her own body—Elisa Valenti.“250lbs, 40×30 acrylic on canvas, 2019.Valenti is self-taught contemporary figurative painter whose “works delight in the beauty and vigor of real, luscious bodies. Voluptuous, sensuous bodies – she honors the body as a vessel, creating representation underrepresented in contemporary, deconstructing stereotypes on the standards of beauty—She says, “Growing up in a culture where body-positivity did not yet exist and worthiness could only be equated with thinness, it wasn’t until I started painting bodies that looked like mine did my journey of self love begin.”