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The Body and Beyond
by Lilianne Milgrom
April, 2011
The Nude:
Alive and Well Down Under
The first stop on my Melbourne art tour was the privately owned TarraWarra Museum of Art. Competing with the natural beauty of the superbly situated TarraWarra vineyards and estate, the museum was showcasing one of Australia's most renowned artists, Brett Whiteley (1939-1992). This exhibition proved to be an auspicious introduction to the nude within the context of the Australian art scene.
Largely self-taught, Whiteley gained international acclaim early in his career and was a symbol of Australia's artistic voice until his untimely death at the age of 53. He tackled a broad range of subjects in a unique, expressionistic style. But the female nude was a central, recurring motif in his work. Whiteley himself reflected that "…even when I was painting abstractions, in a way I was painting the nude." |
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Brett Whiteley, Woman in Bath (1964) |
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| I was particularly drawn to one of the earlier works in this exhibit, Woman in the Bath (1964). The mix of oil, charcoal, tempera, collage and found material on plywood adds a rich, textural element to the beautiful composition. One can sense the subtle influence of Francis Bacon, Whiteley's artistic mentor at the time. Woman in the Bath, from his seminal bathroom series, was inspired by his wife Wendy Julius. It demonstrates Whiteley's strong figuration bordering on abstraction, and is a prime example of his 'seemingly endless curve, undulating line and overt sensual energy' (Eva Breuer). |
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Never aspiring to be a master draftsman, Whiteley was more interested in capturing an experience. As a young man, he was known to sporadically attend sketch clubs where he practiced drawing from the live model. I was reminded of just how much I used to enjoy drawing from the model and decided to drop in on a drawing class at Melbourne's SASH Gallery later in the week.
The scene that greeted me when I entered the studio evoked similar scenes depicted by artists over the centuries. The beautiful model reclining in the center of the tableau, her skin glowing like alabaster, the gathered artists concentrating beside their easels, paintbrush in hand…One can get rather carried away with this romantic notion until it is time to actually draw from the model. It is an experience at once sublime and excruciating. 'Difficult pleasure' is how the late Brett Whiteley so fittingly described the creative process. |
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| Steph Hall, teacher, artist and curator at Smartartzgallery, believes that the familiarity of the human form makes it the perfect subject for beginners.
During a break between poses, some of the artists shared their views about drawing from the model. Many were inspired by the beauty of the human body itself, no matter what shape or size. The muscle tone, shadows, texture, and line provide infinite challenges. Others felt a more spiritual connection to Nature, to the purity of the naked form.
Unable to resist the urge, I gratefully accepted the offer of some butcher paper and charcoal and tried my hand at a ten-minute pose…it felt great! |
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One major artist whose creative development was significantly influenced by life drawing was nineteenth-century French painter Gustave Moreau, whose works are currently on exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Founded in 1861, the NGV is Australia's oldest public art gallery, essentially operating as a first-rate museum. Featuring 117 paintings, watercolors and drawings, Gustave Moreau & the Eternal Feminine is the first significant Moreau exhibition to be held in the Southern Hemisphere. I personally had my fill after about forty works. Moreau's drawings of the female form are masterful, but get lost in translation when he picks up a paintbrush. Like Whiteley, Gustave Moreau was obsessed with the female form, but the latter's body of work reveals a disturbingly aggressive view of female sexuality.
Moreau was a man unsuited to his time. In constant revolt against the industrial developments of his age, he turned to classicism and legend to create a fantastic dream-like world. Never having married, Moreau's close reciprocal relationship with his mother has caused art-historical eyebrows to shoot up when explaining the artist's singular vision of Woman as temptress or agent of destruction. His choice of female subject compounds this view; Delilah, Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Bathsheba, and Helen of Troy are only a few amongst his bare-breasted femmes fatales. His dense canvases blur the boundary between mythical and carnal imagery.
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Gustave Moreau, The Sirens |
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| The Sirens (above) is a myth Moreau would naturally be inclined to paint. In the Odyssey, Ulysses is warned against the Sirens, who possessed the power to lure innocent mariners to their death. This is one artist who definitely had issues with women and I was ready to say adieu to Moreau's diabolical nymphs, unicorns, muses, mythical creatures, and quite frankly, rather saccharine paintings.
Upon reflection, the NGV show reminded me of Brett Whiteley's later works, which tended to represent a darker, more sexual treatment of the female nude. In his typically raw and introspective manner, Whiteley acknowledged his "addiction to the curve, to the carnal, to the rounded, even to lust almost. I see sensuality, sexuality everywhere…most of human motivation is caused by it. It's a very deep force…"
With these thoughts in mind, I planned my next visit to the James Makin Gallery. The gallery's Erotica exhibition caught my attention with the following description - Erotica is a group show which traces the erotic thread throughout the history of art. The eclectic works explore the boundaries between nude, erotic and pornographic genres. I met with curator Jessica Williams in the spacious white cube gallery and questioned her on the nebulous distinction between a nude image and an erotic one. "Erotic needs to leave something to the imagination" Williams explained. The exhibition admittedly did not leave much to the imagination but she does make a point. |
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Pussycat, Jenny Rodgerson |
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| The overall quality of the group show was somewhat inconsistent, but I enjoyed the range of playful, explicit and even instructional offerings, from crocheted phalluses to Japanese shunga. One of the stronger figurative paintings in the show, Pussycat (above) by Jenny Rodgerson, brought to mind one of my favorite painters, Euan Uglow.
Erotica has been the gallery's most popular exhibition to date, with visitors expressing markedly different opinions on the smorgasbord of exposed flesh. Curator Jessica Williams was delighted by the mixed reaction. "The artwork on the wall is only half of the exhibition; the other half is the viewer's response". Touché.
Australia has definitely come a long way in its acceptance and appreciation of the nude in art. Back in November 1969, a poster image of Michelangelo's David was confiscated by the vice squad in Sydney, and the store manager was charged with obscenity. After much consternation from the art community about the "incredible, utterly ridiculous" charges, the authorities ultimately backed off. Today, Australian artists are internationally recognized for pushing the envelope, and the country boasts a robust collector base. No matter what your taste in art, one can be sure to find it in abundance Down Under. Lilianne Milgrom
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A billboard in Melbourne advertising shower gel |
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