Ever wondered why artists, be it modern, abstract, contemporary, or classical, the majority of them would have one work of theirs in a nude form. Many people ask me this question, “Bandana what is the artistic thought process behind this nude form of art? Even you have created a nude artwork“.
Well, if you ask me, I would say it’s a mere perception. The art is certainly not about nudity, rather it’s an approach to express the circumstances.
“What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is nobler than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? “-Michelangelo
Every artist undresses his/her subject, be it nature, human, or still life. An artist’s business is to find the essence in its surfaces. She must depict the positive and negative aspects of life as a whole. Here’s a borrowed line,
‘when it comes to the depiction of an experience, what’s more, attractive and challenging surface than the skin around the soul.’
There is something mysterious and utterly beautiful in the depiction of a human body, especially a nude figure which draws the eye of the viewers. It reminds us that the human body can be both beautiful and grotesque, innocent and sexualized, free, and controlled, and it forces us to consider where our own beliefs fall in these spectrums.
At times this form of art turns into a controversy, at times it becomes a prayer. However, if you see an artwork with a shallow eye, you will only find nudity. But when you go deeper, it shows the profundity of expressions imprinted on it.
Is nudity objectifying or empowering?
I had created one such work on similar lines. It was a female bust form and I further added some green patches on it in 2018. This artwork of mine named “Moss of Misogyny”, is based on the #metoo movement. It came out of that realization that sexual repression is not just limited to few souls, it is an exploitation of vulnerabilities in the backdrop of the faulty lines designed in the human psyche.
The sculpture depicts the collective consciousness of the entire female fraternity which has been subjugated, violated and preyed upon. It reflects how badly the female are affected by sexist prejudice and ideology. How they get oppressed in male-dominated societies which becomes a scar and grows like a filament of moss, decaying them from within. The artwork thus seeks to represent the sacred feminine and the pain inherited from such experiences.
Over the centuries many nudes have been painted, sculpted, photographed, etched, and illustrated. It shocked the public, it got banned, it became a taboo, it was celebrated, criticized, praised, and exhibited. It has caused many people to feel a whole range of emotions, from anger to happiness, from excitement to melancholy, and from sarcasm to adulation.
But the idea was always to pierce the veil and show a different backdrop to the world. While doing so, being eccentric and non-conformist, many a time artists fall into controversies and receive backlash from society classifying their work as pornography and sexual violence deeming it unfit to be exhibited publicly.
Few such artists include Kent Monkman, Monkman is known for creating highly sexualized, provocative work that’s been displayed around the world, including at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artist Kent Monkman is under fire for creating the above painting which shows Monkman’s alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testicle, standing behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is partially nude, on all fours, preparing for what Monkman called ‘a consensual act’ while Indigenous women surrounding him laugh.
Another artist Egon Schiele went to jail for drawing The Radical Nude. And At times this form of art turns into a controversy, at times it becomes a prayer. Our very own, M.F.Hussain had to leave the country due to backlash for one of his controversial artworks.
Freedom of expression is the most essential element in art. This is an artist who finds the right balance between respecting and challenging societal abilities. If they get suppressed and put under the radar of censorship, how would they be able to justify their thoughts?
And then isn’t a human body beautiful enough to contemplate? I believe it is an important artistic tool for an artist just like flowers, sunsets, and mountains. And if a human figure is needed to depict the sole of the art, how can we ignore such powerful curves to express the context of the creation.
