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Our Nation's Capital Exposed
Third Installment of The Body and Beyond
by Lilianne Milgrom
June, 2011
Lilianne
Milgrom sets out to uncover the Washington DC art scene beyond the
venerable Smithsonian museums. She didn't need to scratch too far below
the surface to discover a vibrant art community dedicated to the nude
tradition in art. |
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Lilianne Milgrom |
One of the most significant
exhibitions of the year has to be Masterpieces from the Musée National
Picasso, which will be making appearances in far-flung corners of the
world such as Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Just two hours south of
Washington DC, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, Virginia scored a major coup as the only East Coast stop for this must-see exhibition. One
cannot really talk about the female nude in post-20th century art
without recognizing and acknowledging Picasso's undisputed, far-reaching
influence. It is no secret that Picasso was both inspired and obsessed
by women. He painted, sculpted, and deconstructed their bodies in ways
that obliterated the notion of ideal form. He went where no artist dared
to go and in so doing he changed the way we see. |
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that Picasso produced an estimated 70,000 works in his
lifetime, one can almost become numb to his groundbreaking genius.
But Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso puts the
master right back where he belongs – at the top of his game. There are
ample examples of Picasso's nudes demonstrating his enormous range of
expression from classical, to cubist, to surrealist and beyond.
Showcasing seven decades from the artist's own collection, the works
remain as fresh, immediate and radical as ever.
One painting which I found
particularly disquieting was Woman in Red Armchair. It is as if Picasso
reduced his model to a sack of prehistoric bones and emptied them
randomly onto a red armchair. There is barely a trace of humanity. Yet
the dull skin tones clearly convey the presence of flesh and the
Neolithic shapes somehow manage to communicate a soupçon of femininity.
It is a mesmerizing work, executed with all the confidence and panache
that only this great artist could bring to his canvases. |
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 Woman in Red Armchair, Pablo Picasso |
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| Picasso
is pretty heady stuff, the Mount Everest of the art world so-to-speak.
In order to level the playing field. I headed off to one of the few art
venues in DC where you can really let your hair down. The MOCA DC Art Gallery
in Georgetown is the Great Equalizer – its official motto is 'Open to
all artists, all the time'. At the helm of this non-profit gallery space
is Dave Quammen, political activist, artist's model, ardent supporter
of the arts and DC landmark. MOCA DC's anything-goes philosophy results
in a mixed bag of talent and art offerings. But at the same time, it is a
safe haven for all forms of creative expression, and provides a rare
outlet in the conservative capital to feature nude works from
accomplished drawings to live body painting. |
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| Quammen
puts out three calls a year specifically for nude figurative art –
March is set aside for erotica, July celebrates the figure, and November
ingeniously calls for 'Heads or Tails'. "I didn't want a gallery full
of portraits, so I threw the tails in there" explains Dave. When asked
how Washington's buttoned-up art establishment responds to the
environment he has created at MOCA, he seemed tickled to respond "They
hate me!" Yet MOCA has a loyal following of artists, volunteers and a
general public looking for that undiscovered gem on the crowded gallery
walls.
Amongst Quammen's proudest achievements is the founding of The Figure Models Guild,
one of only a handful in the country. As a retired artist's model
himself, Dave's personal experience highlighted the fact that artists
were often frustrated with their models, who in turn did not really know
what was expected of them. The guild provides rudimentary training for
prospective models and teaches the financial and marketing aspects of
the business. Artists and institutions gain access to a registry of
models and can count on a certain level of professionalism. A win-win
situation. To date there are 135 registered models in the greater
Washington DC area. |
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Dan Quammen |
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The Tuesday Nights Group Art Collective,
based in the District, is a testament to where the love of figure
drawing and a fascination with the human body can lead. Artist Micheline Klagsbrun
has been the driving force behind this disciplined and diverse group of
figure painters. For the past twenty-five years the group's members,
roughly fifteen in all, have met every Tuesday night to work from a live
model in individualistic, independent styles and for a variety of
personal reasons.
The general consensus is that the special environment forged over the
years has created an atmosphere of acceptance, freedom of expression
and 'faith in the magic' that can occur when all the art stars align.
Whether the individuals of this collective are professional artists or
simply driven to create, they share a common inspiration in the human
form and a dedication to their art.
Left:
Painting by Micheline Klagsburn |
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| One of Washington DC's hidden gems is the Kreeger Museum,
a private, pocket-sized museum with a substantial collection of 19th
and 20th century art. If the walls of the museum's soaring entrance
could name-drop, they would be whispering the likes of Cezanne, Degas,
Rodin, Chagall, Monet, and Picasso himself. The temporary exhibit, Tom Wesselmann Draws,
is on show at the Kreeger till July 30,2011. In the 1960's, while
Picasso was continuing his expressive dismemberment, vast changes were
happening in the art scene, particularly in New York.
Non-representational and abstract art were being countered by a new Pop
Art movement with which Tom Wesselmann
(1931-2004) was initially affiliated. The latter's simplified approach
to the nude could not be further from Picasso's dense, psychologically
complex treatment.
'Wesselmann Draws' showcases
the unique relationship between an artist and the most basic of human
mark-making - the line. For over five decades, Wesselmann drew the
female nude. His two principal muses were his wife, and a
model/assistant with whom he collaborated over the span of his career.
He created hundreds of works such as The Great American Nude
series, as well as entire series focusing on individual body parts such
as the nipple, lips and feet. Even so, the artist was not exempt from
the challenges of drawing the nude. "It was always frustrating, because
the beauty of the woman was so elusive." Wesselmann increasingly
experimented with the potential of line, finally taking his drawings
into the third dimension by converting his original sketches into
large-scale laser-cut steel and aluminum 'drawings'. In his own words,
he was looking for a way to 'lift the lines of his drawings off the
page'. |
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Tom Wesselmann, Judy Reaching Over Table, 1960, charcoal drawing |
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Tom Wesselmann, 1960 Judy Reaching Over Table, 1988, Laser cut steel |
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| Another signature technique
which Wesselmann perfected in his nude works was what he termed the
'drop out'. My favorite example on exhibit was Study for Bedroom Painting #59
(below). The large work features a colorful Matisse-like segment framed
by a sensitively drawn line indicating the partial curves of a nude.
The subtle undulating outline is the only indication of the figure which
the artist literally 'dropped out' of the composition, leaving the eye
to fill in the missing volume. Although somewhat illustrative, this
technique shows the artist's drawing skills, confident line and
beautiful composition. |
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Tom Wesselmann, Study for Bedroom Painting #59 |
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Wesselmann is yet another
artist whose life's work was largely influenced by the nude. From the
legendary Picasso to those seeking an occasional creative outlet, the
potential of the nude to inspire is limited only by the artist's
imagination. Inasmuch as the nude is a celebration of Life, exposing
the nation's capital without her clothes on casts Washington DC in a
more vibrant and attractive light, proving that first appearances can
be deceiving...
(Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso travels to San Francisco's De Young Museum next) |
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Copyright 2011, The Great Nude, Inc.
TheGreatNude.tv is produced by Dangerous Media Productions, Inc |
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