Daniel Maidman Sketches from the live nude at TheGreatNude Invitational
NEW VIDEO Daniel Maidman Sketches from the live nude at TheGreatNude Invitational
Daniel Maidman, one of TheGreatNude Invitational’s exhibiting artists, spent the weekend attending our drawing workshops with Sherry Camhy. Continuing his drawing marathon, Daniel joined our sketch party on Saturday night, and sketched from our two models that evening. We had a chance to ask Daniel some questions on his approach to drawing the figure.
Drawings by Daniel Maidman from the workshops at TheGreatNude Invitational are also available to view.
TheGreatNude Invitational opens May 14,15 and 16 at The Roger Smith Hotel. Featuring 25 international artists working with the nude. Online Ticketing now available!
MAY 14,15,16 - DAILY ADMISSION: 12pm-6pm, $10.
MAY 14,15 - EVENING ADMISSION: 6pm-11pm, $25. Includes our SKETCH PARTY featuring Nude Models.
Just wanted to share the advertisement we took out for TheGreatNude Invitational in the May issue of ART+AUCTION and Modern Painters magazines. We’re posting more artworks of exhibiting artists on the website if you’d like to preview. (We’re updating the official website with our next Press Release tomorrow.)
As you can see, we’ve got a great collection of artists who work with the nude. Exhibitors include Odd Nerdrum, Sherry Camhy, Daniel Maidman, Scott Goodwillie, Fedele Spadafora, Richard Stipl, Mary Larsen, Adam Miller and Richard T. Scott amongst others. If you want to see our online marketing kit, click here.
More artists are joining every day, so stay tuned.
Half-page advertisement in ART+AUCTION and Modern Painters magazines.
Peruvian artist Kukuli Velarde makes her debut at Barry Friedman LTD with an incredibly visceral show, making excellent use of the nude in her art. With boundless imagination and unbridled drama, the works are intimate, soulful compositions that are difficult to pass by. I highly recommend that everyone in the New York area make a point to expose themselves to the strong presence that is Velarde’s work.
The exhibition debuts Velarde’s work in two mediums. The first being her terracotta sculptures, and the second being her paintings on brushed aluminum. The sculptures are vessels to an antique nature, displayed as evidence unearthed from an anthropological dig. Entitled ‘Plunder Me Baby,’ the sculptures presentation, with museum-like signage, provokes an association to an indigenous cultures’ reaction to European colonization and subjugation. Each piece is categorized as to estimated date and region of ‘find.’ They are listed uncommonly, containing a quick description of personal quirks (”Bites, likes tough love”.) Both startling and amusing is the personification experienced from each piece’s face and limbs. Kukuli’s grasp of expression is remarkable as her sculptures appear if as on the verge of coming alive.
In her paintings - the ‘Cadaver’ series - Velarde uses images of conquered peoples in the context of European cultural and religious imagery. The expressions of the subjects, in comparison to Velarde’s sculptures, are less playful, but are equally as powerful. Referencing modes of accepted Western beauty such as the classical Venus, Velarde literally tries on their “skin”, inserting herself as the model in most of her primary figures. There is an uneasy marriage of cultures here, which is what makes this exhibition work so well. There is both homage and disgust, piety and betrayal, using Western culture and its iconographic art as props to make her own contemporary statements.
Finally there is a video of her late father with whom she shared a very strong bond, her passion as artist especially apparent in this emotion-filled work. Kukuli surrounds the projected video with wall drawings, referencing the time that her father caught her drawing on the wall of their home. He sensed a talent in his daughter which he encouraged over the years. The homage is creative and touching and the exhibit as a whole, remarkably fresh. Dad would be proud.
Sculptor Antony Gormley has continually impressed us over his more than quarter-century career as a visual artist. In most cases Gormley uses his own body as the main influence for his work, creating structures that radiate energy through his varied use of medium, and shape. Having shown all over the world, Gormley has recently finished an installation in Manhattan’s flatiron district.
The installation consists of a series of thirty-one statues, camouflaged on rooftops in the surrounding area. Each weighs close to 3/4 of a ton. They are designed to overlook the Flatiron district from different angles, creating a visual flow. Gormley did a similar showing in London in 2007.
Walking through the Flatiron district, you would almost have to know where you were looking to see the ominous works. Standing in the central partition, across the street from the Flatiron building, the statues gaze down on you powerfully, overwhelming you with a sense of greatness, growing as you continue to discover the works that appear to be greatly aware of you prior to your discovery of them. Provocative, and glorifying of the human form through its borderline abstraction, Gormley’s works are a manifest piece of culture, waiting to be discovered.
Click here for the New York Times article on Gormley’s exhibit.
Friday, February 12, 2010 marked the opening for Chelsea Gallery, Rogue Space’s show, Valentine’s Nude Workshop. The gallery featured a wide range of mediums with the figure as theme, with some artists from Barebrush.com. During the show, behind a private curtain, live drawing sessions were taking place. Inside the low-lit room were two models, striking a series a three different poses per session. In addition, TGN was able to judge the artists works from after the event.
TGN publisher Jeffrey Wiener talking with some Barebrush artists.
The following day TheGreatNude.tv publisher, Jeffrey Wiener gave a speech at the gallery on empowering artists through technology, digital marketing and social media. Make sure to check out the TGN site for more info on upcoming events, including our Great Nude Invitationals, and to see are our four favorite artist’s sketches posted online from the event.
TheGreatNude Invitational - May 13 - 16, The Roger Smith Hotel
Due to the great amount of interest in TheGreatNude Invitational, we have rescheduled the event at The Roger Smith Hotel for May 13 - 16, 2010 - allowing for the participation of some great artists and galleries, and making this event truly exciting for the Figurative Arts community. Check the site for new information and regular updates at www.thegreatnude.tv/invitational
Artists Odd Nerdrum, Richard T. Scott, Scott Goodwillie and Adam Miller have joined the exhibition, along with a number of galleries representing some of the world’s most well-known figurative artists, including Forum Gallery.
In addition, we are pleased to announce that Peter Trippi, editor of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine and renowned art critic Donald Kuspit, have joined our Host Committee. Click to Read More>
Galleries, Curators, Artists Groups & Art Schools who wish to exhibit at the Invitational will be happy to know about several new developments. Early payment Discounts available. Click to Read More>
Sincerely,
Jeffery Wiener
Publisher, TheGreatNude.tv
Here’s an appropriate use of the figure in advertising! The FX show Nip Tuck advertising campaigns have consistently used the figure in classic poses, but with one that captures the reality of one of the United State’s largest businesses; plastic surgery. The billion dollar industry operates under the promise of allowing men and women the opportunity to aesthetically reverse time. The shows advertisements give us glimpses into that mentality, showing it from a first person view, but critiquing the industry in the process. The images used in the show’s advertisements build around the social commentary of plastic surgery but stand as commercialized uses of the figure, as well as being reflective of timeless posing.
Caption holder
In one advertisement the figure dramatically contours her body accentuating the thinness of her waist. Her weight is supported primarily on the operating table as she balances herself on the thighs of her doctors. Another shows an angelic figure, fallen in the desert, her wings cut from her body, suggesting the once angels desire to sacrifice her gift of wings in exchange for proximity to achieving the ultimate standard in human beauty. The third image was taken by David LaChapelle, an artist once found in the pages of Vogue, now producing pieces that could be considered commercially inspired. In this photo we see a the surgeons reproducing Venus de Milo on a live human form. The live model wears swimwear with wavy blond hair and over-sized sunglasses, looking as if removed from a Florida beach. The superficial elements of the subject as an individual are hinted on, but not overtly emphasized.
An angel having just removed her wings through plastic surgery in an effort to achieve the human standard of beauty
Taken by David LaChapelle this photo shows a woman trying to emulate the Venus de Milo in an effort to achieve a greater degree of beauty.
Other modern users of the nude form are harder to distinguish in terms of what their objectives are. One such advertiser is The United Colors of Benetton who frequently challenges our conceptions of race and social boundaries. More often than not Benetton seems to generate critiques that their advertising is more shock value but the idea that Benetton might be conveying a social commentary coded in metaphor above our comprehension levels remains. One of their ads features a Caucasian newborn ready to be nursed by am African American woman, her head out of view. Another features a wall of multiple portraits of men and women’s genitals; imagery that would be more likely to be seen in a gallery than with a commercial advertier. One thing is clear through viewing Benetton’s advertising; that there is a purpose for its symbolic value, even if that reason is strictly to generate sales.
When most people are asked to describe an artistic genius, Picasso is often cited as an example. In addition to his undeniable creative talents and the large body of excellent work produced in his lifetime, his whole career appears to have been a successful strategy of exploration and risk-taking at just the right moment in history.
Picasso moved through many periods during his career; some of them depending heavily on the use of the figure, and others where the human form is broken down into nearly unrecognizable shapes. The widely varying phases of Picasso, if positioned anonymously next to each other, could easily be seen as the works of completely different artists; not only aesthetically, but in tone and subject matter as well. His life’s work reflects the desire to understand the essence of humanity and to relay it back to us.
