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.

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Last night, February 3rd, was the opening night for the newly relocated DFN Gallery. After having previously been located in Soho, and in Chelsea, DFN now takes residence on the Upper East Side, where its modern works refresh the local art scene.

The energy filled opening, titled Looks Good on Paper offers a broad range of works from over forty different artists. Being works on paper, the general scale of the pieces were mostly on the smaller side, but the consistent media did not limit variety at the show. Many of the pieces carried themes of beautiful imagery, inspiration seeming to come from a blend of everyday life as well as the fantastical. Some of the artists featured include Vincent Desiderio, Steve Shaheen, and Joan Semmel.

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Jordan Wolfson, Reclining Nude III, 2010, ink and acrylic on paper.

Joan Semmel, Pencil Study from 'Centered,' 2003, pencil on paper.

DFN Galley
74 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10075

Gallery Henoch, known for the diversity in its representational artists, is currently featuring Sharon Sprung, a prominent figurative artist in New York. Her work stands beside numerous other approaches to the figure, but commands the attention of the room with her pensive nudes. This Chelsea gallery always has wonderful painters of the figure in their stable, so make sure to visit this gallery regularly.

Gallery Henoch
555 W. 25th St. New York, NY

See our previous Post on Sharon Sprung from 2008.

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The Sari, Oil/Panel, 38'' x 48''

CC, Oil/Panel, 40'' x 48''

This year the New York Academy of Art holds its 18th Annual Take Home a Nude Event. Celebrities and prominent members of the New York art community always attend this showing of some of the city’s finest figurative work. As with last year’s auction, there is a wide variety of work, and artists will be showing off their skills, showcasing their techniques and walking those interested through the process of creating figurative art. The 2009 Event will be held Wednesday, October 7. For more information email Katie Albert at [email protected]

Edward Schmidt, Faculty, NYAA

To see a video from last year’s show click here.

Liev Schreiber and Justin Timberlake at the NYAA's Take Home a Nude Event 2008.

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A Figurative Reconstruction: 2009 MFA Diploma Exhibition
May 12 – May 24, 2009
New York, NY

“A Figurative Reconstruction,” an exhibition featuring the diploma work of the 2009 MFA graduates of the
New York Academy of Art, opens at the Academy with a public reception on Monday, May 11th, from 6 – 8 pm. The show will run from May 12th to May 24th, 1 – 7 pm or by appointment.

Lux Standing, by Panni Malekzadeh

“A Figurative Reconstruction” investigates diverse and arresting approaches to figurative art, in which traditional techniques such as narrative composition, chiaroscuro, linear perspective and three-dimensional modeling meld with contemporary genres like the graphic novel, gaming and digital photography, in a striking array of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by the 53 new graduates. Visitors will experience the figure in many articulations – from the profane to the transcendent, the abstract to the surreal, and the ‘real’ to the metaphysical. Salient throughout is a sensitivity to the historical trajectory transformed into the service of the artists’ personal visions and voices. This critical mass of talent and energy emerges onto a scene impacted by recent Academy alumni. Helen Verhoeven, J.P. Roy, Amy Bennett, Ali Banisadr, Jason Bereswill, Alyssa Monks and Bryan LeBoeuf are among the many new alumni who have had solo shows within the past year in distinguished galleries and are now represented by such prominent dealers as Leslie Tonkonow and Tony Shafrazi.

About the New York Academy of Art
The New York Academy of Art, founded twenty-seven years ago by Andy Warhol, Tom Wolfe and other art-world luminaries, is exceptional among MFA degree programs in the US in its investigation of the human figure as a basis for the creation of vital contemporary art. Nearly 1,000 artists have received the MFA degree from the Academy’s Graduate School of Figurative Art. The Academy is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and cultural institution. For further information on the Academy, its graduate school, continuing education courses and public programs, please visit www.nyaa.edu.

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Jenny : 8 Reclining Nudes
May, 2009

Our first submission to our Model’s Library features Jenny in a series of traditional reclining nudes.

New to the Model Library - Jenny: 8 Reclining Nudes

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Forum Gallery
March 19, 2009 – May 02, 2009

Review by Scott Goodwillie

If Rembrandt were alive today and had access to the colors available to the modern painter, his work may have looked like the masterpieces produced by one of the most popular figurative artists working today. Steven Assael has a new show of beautiful paintings and drawings up at the Forum Gallery, right down the street from TheGreatNude.tv studio.

Steven Assael has worked with the figure almost exclusively throughout his long career as a teacher and exhibiting artist. He has an innate ability to capture the intangible human essence of the person posing for him, and technically, he’s one of the few painters who can produce amazing landscapes of voluptuous and accessible flesh. Unbelievable realism on a large scale that transforms into visual poetry as you approach the canvas, with brush strokes that can be marvelous to ponder up close.

Steven Assael's "Figure Holding Glasses"

Most of the works in this show are large paintings of people posed in natural social situations, mostly clothed, but with faces that come alive on the canvas. Several nudes however are standout works in the show. A painting with the unassuming name “Figure Holding Eyeglasses” confronts you as you walk into the gallery. There is a lot to read into its average-looking sitter and what Assail has captured here. This is not an easy or pretty painting. A sad, haunted look resonates from this anonymous girl with a presence and body language which I can imagine being carried over into her everyday life. (In Assael’s best works, he seems to get at a deeper intangible of personality which sometimes has a nihilistic quality.) He captures something which certainly goes beyond “paint on canvas”. The fact that she remains unnamed only adds to this piece.

Steven Assael's "Jordana With Camera", a large pencil drawing.

In the large nude sketch of “Jordana Holding a Camera” you get a completely different feeling from the model. She’s certainly more confident than the girl in the painting and here again, it’s the ability to capture personality which not everyone is capable of. Assail is also a virtuoso with a pencil. These drawings actually seem to emanate light.

These large figurative works alone are reason to get over to the Forum Gallery to see a wonderful selection of masterful paintings from an artist who is doing some amazing work. The paintings and drawings of Steven Assael can be seen through May 2nd at Forum Gallery / 745 5th Ave New York City.

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Klaudia Marr Gallery is currently holding an exhibit called EVENLY SCATTERED that presents the works by 8 artists from the US and abroad, that don’t necessarily fit the confines of conventional realism, but portray different levels of representational art. Several Figurative Artists are exhibiting in this show, including Toby Boothman, who’s iconic nudes are striking for their clarity and technique. We had a chance to ask Boothman some questions about his work:

Toby Boothman's figurative work on view at the Klaudia Marr Gallery

TGN: You’ve obviously been influenced by the great European masters. Can you tell us about your technique for painting the figure?

Boothman: I have been heavily influenced by various artists. In particular the Flemish Renaissance master Jan Van Eyck, as well as Caravaggio, Vermeer and Ingres. In 1992 I studied under the master Patrick Betaudier in a place called Monflanquin in France. It was here, at the Atelier Neo Medici, that I learned a modern version of the Renaissance technique know as the Technique Mixed.

Over the years I have practiced this technique and evolved it to suit my needs.

I paint on both canvas and panel depending on the subject matter and size. I begin with a detailed under-drawing using a carbon pencil. Once this is finished I fix the drawing and cover it with a tinted wash known as the imprematura.

I then begin to paint using gradations of raw umber through to white. I work over the whole canvas many times until I am satisfied that the under-painting has been fully modelled and is ready for the colour. The under-painting is rendered in lighter tones than the colour glazes to come, so that the glazes of colour which follow enhance the dimensions of the form.

For the colour, I apply between 30 and 40 glazes of transparent colour, gradually enriching the painting and developing a depth of colour that is intense and three dimensional – never solid or bloc. In effect the light passes through the colour glazes to revel and enhance the modelled under-painting beneath.

TGN: Do you paint from the live nude model or do you utilize any technologies for creating your paintings?

Boothman: I work mainly from photographs, which I develop on the computer, using layering effects to lighten and darken the original image at various points.

 Many of my paintings use chiaroscuro; where lit figures emerge from darkness. But I have recently introduced gold leaf into the background of some of my paintings. This gives a very different effect, and adds to the visual illusion that the figure is standing apart from the background. It enhances the feeling of 3D, which is already a strong aspect to my work. I believe that the use of gold leaf ties in with the historical references in my work too. I’m also using the latest computer software to enhance the images that I work from. I have always felt that my work represents a meeting point between tradition and modernity.

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