Focus

The Representation of the Nude: Between Affirmation and Subversion
Body politics
20.11.2020 | Sibylle Vabre

Laure Albin Guillot, Étude de nu, 1930-1940, © Laure Albin Guillot / Roger-Viollet

In academic art education as it was organised until the 19th century, the representation of nude models was indispensable for the conception of history paintings. For a long time women artists were excluded from life drawing classes for reasons of morality. Thus they could not claim to be equal to men in the noblest genre. The question of opening life drawing to women generated a heated debate and thus very early the representation of the nude was a true challenge in the training and career of women artists. While their access to classes was a point of contention, some found other paths outside the academies. Immediately part of a form of subversion, the nude was an open door to new artistic explorations and the vehicle for personal, professional and political affirmation.

While the live model was an element of study, the representation of naked bodies was also a means of touching what is most intimate and most universal in humanity. In the sculptures of Camille Claudel (1864-1943), bodies were the support of an expression of emotions through the ages.

Certain female artists took advantage of the narrative and symbolic dimension of the nude in connection to nature. Photographer Anne Brigman (1869-1950) staged nude women in Californian landscapes in images that personified natural forces. A similar association can be found in the sculptures of Maria Martins (1894-1973) that depict hybrid beings blending humans and vegetation in a surrealist vein. More recently, the photographs and videos of multidisciplinary artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) retain the traces of performances in which she became one with the elements. Summoning the evocative force of Latin American rituals and sacrifices, she metamorphically rooted herself in a land that was not the same as the one from which she originated, and investigated femininity through her own body.

Under the brush of painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) the nude became a pictorial subject in its own right. In her portraits of nude women and children she evoked motherhood, stripped of any mythological pretext, as well as in a famous 1906 painting where she herself appears pregnant, becoming a pioneer of the nude female self-portrait. Pan Yuliang (1899-1977) devoted herself to the same subject, exploring themes of female bathers and indoor nudes. Many of her drawings share an erotic connotation that was scandalous during her lifetime and considered inappropriate for women.

The canvases in which Lotte Laserstein (1898-1993) staged herself in her studio are an affirmation of the artist’s status. In In meinem Atelier (1928) the imposing presence of the model in the foreground, whose body is realistically detailed, implies an aesthetic statement and consecrates the image of the modern woman whom the painter portrayed several times in the guise of Traute Rose (1904-1997). Alice Neel (1900-1984) fed an emancipated representation of the canons of beauty. Characterised by a raw realism, her nude portraits are sexualised but not eroticised. The subjects appear charged with their condition, like pregnant women. Her frankness can be seen in a unique nude self-portrait that she began in 1975, where she portrays her own 70-year old body without any concession. In addition to the works by female artists, the nude is also an issue in the representation of women in institutions and collections, as highlighted by the actions of the Guerrilla Girls from the 1980s onwards.

Bringing the image of the body into play, some artists use the representation of the nude in a feminist approach to denounce the eroticisation of bodies in the male gaze. Sylvia Sleigh (1916-2010) reverses the scopic relationship by painting nude men in postures attributed to female models in art history, highlighting their erotic dimension by diverting it. Others draw their iconography from pornography. Censorship became the subject in the paintings of Joan Semmel (b. 1932) and in the Fuck Paintings (1969-1974) of Betty Tompkins (born in 1945), betraying the subversive force of sexual imagery. The same phenomenon struck in 1987 with the photographs of Florence Chevallier (born in 1955) from the series Corps à corps, which depicts a heterosexual relationship in its agonistic dimension.

New generations of artists continue to use the representation of the nude to mobilise the self-portrait and reveal the political inscription of bodies, as seen with Jenny Saville (born in  1970) and Allana Clarke (born in 1987), among others.

Referring to the intimacy, fragility and nature of the human being, the representation of the nude cannot leave anyone indifferent, as it also implies the revealing what is usually hidden. Through the above-mentioned works and those of other female artists, the representation of the nude manifests a great poetic and political force, while retaining a deeply subversive character.

Artists
Explore the artists
1869 — Hawaii | 1950 — United States
Anne Brigman - AWARE

Anne Brigman

1876 — 1907 | Germany
Paula Modersohn-Becker - AWARE

Paula Modersohn-Becker

1894 — 1973 | Brazil
Maria Martins - AWARE

Maria Martins

1864 — 1943 | France
Camille Claudel - AWARE

Camille Claudel

1895 — China | 1977 — France
Pan Yuliang - AWARE

Pan Yuliang

1948 — Cuba | 1985 — United States
Ana Mendieta - AWARE

Ana Mendieta

1900 — 1984 | United States
Alice Neel - AWARE

Alice Neel

1945 | United States
Betty  Tompkins - AWARE

Betty Tompkins

1985 | United States
Guerrilla Girls - AWARE

Guerrilla Girls

1955 | Morocco
Florence Chevallier - AWARE

Florence Chevallier

1898 — Poland | 1980 — Mexico
Tamara de Lempicka - AWARE

Tamara de Lempicka

1937 | Spain
Esther Ferrer - AWARE

Esther Ferrer

1958 — 1981 | United States
Francesca Woodman - AWARE

Francesca Woodman

1939 — 2019 | United States
Carolee Schneemann - AWARE

Carolee Schneemann

1971 | Mexico
Lorena Wolffer - AWARE

Lorena Wolffer

1956 | Croatia
Vlasta Delimar - AWARE

Vlasta Delimar

1848 — Spain | 1924 — France
Amélie Beaury-Saurel - AWARE

Amélie Beaury-Saurel

1844 — 1933 | United-Kingdom
Annie Louisa Swynnerton - AWARE

Annie Louisa Swynnerton

1948 — New Zealand | 2014 — England
Alexis Hunter - AWARE

Alexis Hunter

1959 — 2018 | United States
Laura  Aguilar - AWARE

Laura Aguilar

1929 | Argentina
Ilse  Fuskova (Felka) - AWARE

Ilse Fuskova (Felka)

1959 | Mexico
Silvia Gruner - AWARE

Silvia Gruner

1869 — 1937 | France
Clémentine-Hélène Dufau - AWARE

Clémentine-Hélène Dufau

1939 — 2020 | Algeria
Leila Ferhat - AWARE

Leila Ferhat

1898 — Prussia (now Pasłęk, Poland) | 1993 — Sweden
Lotte Laserstein - AWARE

Lotte Laserstein

1951 | United States
Donna Gottschalk - AWARE

Donna Gottschalk

1939 — 2019 | United States
Barbara Hammer - AWARE

Barbara Hammer

1954 | United States
Annie Sprinkle (aka Ellen F. Steinberg) - AWARE

Annie Sprinkle (aka Ellen F. Steinberg)

1951 | United Kingdom
Cosey Fanni Tutti (Christine Carol Newby, dite) - AWARE

Cosey Fanni Tutti (Christine Carol Newby, dite)

1970 | Turkey
CANAN (Şenol) - AWARE

CANAN (Şenol)

1916 — United Kingdom | 2010 — United States
Sylvia Sleigh - AWARE

Sylvia Sleigh

1962 | China
Xiao Lu - AWARE

Xiao Lu

1962 | Turkey
Şükran Moral - AWARE

Şükran Moral

1927 — 1977 | Bolivia
María Esther Ballivián - AWARE

María Esther Ballivián

1959 | Greenland
Jessie Kleemann - AWARE

Jessie Kleemann

1905 — 1985 | Bulgaria
Vaska Emanuilova - AWARE

Vaska Emanuilova

1893 — 1978 | Mexico
Nahui Olin - AWARE

Nahui Olin

1951 — 1994 | Argentina
Liliana Maresca - AWARE

Liliana Maresca

1949 — United States | 2004 — Israel
Pamela Levy - AWARE

Pamela Levy

1879 — 1962 | France
Laure Albin Guillot - AWARE

Laure Albin Guillot

1963 | Egypt
Ghada Amer - AWARE

Ghada Amer

1929 — 2023 | United States
Ida Applebroog - AWARE

Ida Applebroog

1899 — 1925 | Hungary
Erzsébet Korb - AWARE

Erzsébet Korb

1935 — Portugal | 2022 — Great Britain
Paula Rego - AWARE

Paula Rego

1951 — 2021 | Japan
Tāri Itō - AWARE

Tāri Itō

1932 — 2022 | Japan
Asuka Tsuboi - AWARE

Asuka Tsuboi

1964 | France
Valérie Belin - AWARE

Valérie Belin

1940 — 1993 | United States
Hannah Wilke - AWARE

Hannah Wilke

1908 — Germany | 1994 — Israel
Liselotte Grschebina - AWARE

Liselotte Grschebina

1968 | Albania
Ornela Vorpsi - AWARE

Ornela Vorpsi

1939 — 1968 | France
Clotilde Vautier - AWARE

Clotilde Vautier

1970 | Austria
Elke Silvia Krystufek - AWARE

Elke Silvia Krystufek

1935 | Italy
Camilla  Adami - AWARE

Camilla Adami

1963 | Poland
Katarzyna Kozyra - AWARE

Katarzyna Kozyra

1970 | France
Rebecca Bournigault - AWARE

Rebecca Bournigault

1947 | Poland
Zofia Kulik - AWARE

Zofia Kulik

1969 | United Kingdom
Cecily Brown - AWARE

Cecily Brown

1965 | Sierra Leone
Patricia Piccinini - AWARE

Patricia Piccinini

1942 | Yugoslavia (Serbia)
Katalin Ladik - AWARE

Katalin Ladik

1941 | United States
Sheree Rose - AWARE

Sheree Rose

1956 — 2018 | Taiwan
YAN Ming-Huy - AWARE

YAN Ming-Huy

1942 | Spain
Mari Chordà - AWARE

Mari Chordà

1904 — China | 1991 — France
Colette Richarme - AWARE

Colette Richarme

1893 — 1975 | Argentina
Lía Correa Morales - AWARE

Lía Correa Morales

1905 — 2008 | Japan
Tamako Kataoka - AWARE

Tamako Kataoka

1896 — 1988 | Japan
Hisako Kajiwara - AWARE

Hisako Kajiwara

1972 | Israel
Rona Yefman - AWARE

Rona Yefman

1951 | Singapore
Amanda Heng - AWARE

Amanda Heng

1970 | Switzerland
Louise Bonnet - AWARE

Louise Bonnet

1970 | United Kingdom
Jenny  Saville - AWARE

Jenny Saville

1974 | Belgium
Aline Bouvy - AWARE

Aline Bouvy

1954 | Vietnam
Hanh Thi Pham - AWARE

Hanh Thi Pham

Archives
of Women Artists
Research
& Exhibitions

Facebook - AWARE Twitter - AWARE Instagram - AWARE
Villa Vassilieff - 21, avenue du Maine 75015 Paris (France) — info[at]aware-art[.]org — +33 (0)1 55 26 90 29