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.
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.
During my walks through New York’s gallery districts there are times that I find myself anxious for something to take my breath away. And there are times when it gets taken away not once but three times, all from artists working with the figure in very different ways.
On view at Postmasters Gallery is the current body of work by Steve Mumford, who started his ‘Baghdad Journal’ at the outset of the war in 2003. In his travels with the American military in Iraq, he made quick sketches of his experiences during moments of combat and repose. These were in turn transcribed on canvas upon his return to the studio. The new works in this show reveal a more nuanced look at war, and how it is experienced from the perspective of jihadists and our occupying military personal.
There are two nudes in the exhibit to talk about here. The small portrait of a half nude woman on a bed might be a competently rendered but unremarkable work until you notice her right arm veiled in shadow has been amputated. This then invites more scrutiny of her expression and the thoughts of a young woman whose life has been permanently altered. It gives credence to the graffiti painting in the other room lamenting “wish I was, where I was, when I was wishing, I was here.”
A large striking painting in the main gallery titled Baqubah portrays a languid moment for a group of marines cooling themselves in a murky pool of water. Most are nude and expertly rendered. Mumfords’ understanding of anatomy is on display here even through multiple tattoos on one of the men. He delivers relaxed poses with great textural passages of paint and atmosphere. As with ballet or opera, sometimes the most natural seeming movements take the greatest dexterity to pull off. I’ve been following Steve’s work for some time now and feel this is some of his best to date.
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
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.
Best known for work that nearly defined the “Pin-up”, Alberto Vargas is recognized for depicting and perfecting the image of female sexuality in the first half of the 20th century. Having worked with Esquire and more famously Playboy magazines, some would be quick to write Vargas off as a soft pornographer, and he’s never expressed any shame in that. However, from the perspective of TheGreatNude, Vargas was an artist dedicated to the figure, and produced a body of work that embodied the meaning of female sexuality and in effect became standards of feminine desire for a generation of American men.
In the early 1920′s, Vargas solidified his career as a successful artist working with the Ziegfeld Follies, and later working as a regular illustrator for Esquire magazine, where he created the infamous “Varga Girl”, a stylistic. While restricted in his ability to paint fully nude figures for these publications, Vargas was able to convey a comparable essence, stylistically depicting his women as playful, coy, and full of energy, further solidifying and advancing the concept of the Pin-Up as an icon of sexual freedom.
In the 1950’s Playboy was the master of men’s literature, delivering well researched articles simultaneously with artistic and sexual content. For decades, Vargas’ art works had a premier spot following the magazine’s premier feature: The Centerfold. It was this venue that gave Vargas the freedom to paint his strongest nudes at the peak of his career, and he produced many of his most iconographic works during this time.
Like The Spice Gallery
Brooklyn, NY
June 2009
Review by: Scott Goodwillie
Reuben Negrón‘s recent exhibit of watercolors at Like the Spice Gallery is a strong display of figurative work seen in a modern, fresh light. Negron’s use of the medium is masterful, and he uses figures to creat intimate scenes filled with a warm humanity.
For a young artist, Negrón may have found a genre he enjoys and portrays well. I look forward to seeing how else he challenges our voyeuristic nature in the future.
I recently saw a small exhibit of delicate male nudes by of Paul P that were holding their own down in Chelsea, NYC earlier this year. Canadian born of Paul P (1977) lives in Paris and is gaining attention as an artist. He has done numerous exhibitions since his first in 2001. Paul P’s works make excellent use of his media, blurring the line between charcoal, pencil sketch and water color, conveying movement and strong color to subject relationships throughout his pieces in the process.
Untitled-2007
A byproduct of the late twentieth century and prominent in the gay art community, his work is characteristic of those genres. Many of his figures, generally nude males of disputable age, are posed in overtly sexually posed that are dark and somber in nature. The claustrophobic undertone, seen through facial expression and body language, creates an overall sense of oppression. His ‘Untitled’ shown below suggests two persons in a sexual positioning – but no one looks happy here. I often look for universal qualities of the human condition in figurative works, but Paul P’s work seems aimed directly at/to the Gay Community.
There are of course romantic elements in Paul P’s work. However, even where Love is concerned, the artist seems to be catering to a cultural fascination; at the very least showing a strong attention to the young male form, beautiful even though the use of the figure seems politicized in the case of Paul P.
Thinking back to when I was about, oh 13 or so, my father while working on the base of my bed found a drawing I had done from a photo of Bettie Page. He promptly called me into my room, told me what he’d found and congratulated me on my good taste. He then helped me find a better hiding place for the drawing so my mother wouldn’t find out.
The photo I had found of Page wasn’t even her most provocative but there was just something about her demeanor, her good-natured joy which captured my heart. Her curves of course had already captured my raging hormones. As I later came across more of her images, I realized she seemed happy and natural even tied up in knots not even a boyscout could undue. It’s been said that she was always comfortable in her own skin which I believe encapsulates it nicely. She also looked like someone who would talk to you if approached, just a nice girl next door with a secret or two!
When I heard of her death last week, I felt a moment of sadness in her passing. I hadn’t really thought of her in a long time even though she’d become a cultural icon and photos of her are at your fingertips in abundance online. I do wonder what she looked like as she aged. I don’t think I’m alone in this but there is a feeling I get from her better photos of intimacy and sharing in a good time. Feeling sad and nostalgic for someone you’ve never known and who was only known as eternally young. Feeling a sense of loss for someone you only knew as a photograph, that’s crazy. Right? We’ll miss you Bettie, we’ll miss you.
In our newly posted Sketch Sessions video artists Scott Goodwille and Mikel Glass and host Jeff Wiener sketch the lovely Mia, a lithe model who has worked for several of New York City’s finest art schools and drawing ateliers.
In this video, all three artists comment about the drawing process, and in particular, the use of “triangulation” to compose an accurate rendering of a complex pose. Each has their own take on the process.
