Synopses & Reviews
Rodinandrsquo;s
Thinker. Da Vinciandrsquo;s
Vitruvian Man. Pigalleandrsquo;s controversial portrayal of the philosopher Voltaire. From its earliest days, art history has been rife with representations of nude men. But while there are many studies of art celebrating the female form, the male nude has suffered from relative neglect. This book seeks to correct that imbalance with a collection of paintings, sculptures, and photographs that challenge conceptions of the body and masculinity, many of which continue to have considerable cultural resonance today.
Nude Men takes readers on a fascinating tour of the male nude in art history, turning the focus on works from the Enlightenment to the present. Beginning with a look at art completed in the life-drawing classes once popular across European academies, the book moves on to representations of masculinity throughout the French Revolution, including works by Johann Heinrich Fanduuml;ssli and Antonio Canova; provocative Sturm und Drang paintings by Edvard Munch and his contemporaries; and late impressionist works. The unsettling self-portraits of Austrian artists Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl exemplify an extreme candor that characterized the early twentieth century. Other twentieth-century artists whose work is included in this book are Jean Cocteau, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, and Louise Bourgeois.
With nearly three hundred full-color illustrations, the book also includes insightful essays examining topics like male identity, depictions of desire in modern art, and the use of nude men in advertising.
Review
andquot;A richly illustrated and expertly research exploration of depictions of the nude male body from 1800 to the present. The starting point of the accompanying exhibition was this question: why have there been major exhibitions devoted to the female nude but almost none to the male nude? The fascinating essays, which redress this lacuna, range from discussions of the development of an ideal of male nudity in the eighteenth-century through the writings of Winckelmann to the performance of emasculation in contemporary art.andquot;
Synopsis
Rodin's Thinker. Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Pigalle's controversial portrayal of the philosopher Voltaire. From its earliest days, art history has been rife with representations of nude men. But while there are many studies of art celebrating the female form, the male nude has suffered from relative neglect. This book seeks to correct that imbalance with a collection of paintings, sculptures, and photographs that challenge conceptions of the body and masculinity, many of which continue to have considerable cultural resonance today.
Nude Men takes readers on a fascinating tour of the male nude in art history, turning the focus on works from the Enlightenment to the present. Beginning with a look at art completed in the life-drawing classes once popular across European academies, the book moves on to representations of masculinity throughout the French Revolution, including works by Johann Heinrich Fussli and Antonio Canova; provocative Sturm und Drang paintings by Edvard Munch and his contemporaries; and late impressionist works. The unsettling self-portraits of Austrian artists Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl exemplify an extreme candor that characterized the early twentieth century. Other twentieth-century artists whose work is included in this book are Jean Cocteau, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, and Louise Bourgeois.
With nearly three hundred full-color illustrations, the book also includes insightful essays examining topics like male identity, depictions of desire in modern art, and the use of nude men in advertising.
About the Author
Tobias G. Natter is an Austrian art historian and director of the Leopold Museum in Vienna, which houses one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art.
Elisabeth Leopold is an Austrian art collector. With Rudolf Leopold, she cofounded the Leopold Museum and the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.
Table of Contents
Foreword: The Long Shadow of the Fig Leaf
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Tobias G. Natter
ESSAYSPoetry of the Body. The Naked Man in the History of Art
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Elisabeth Leopold
Nakedness and Masculine Identity. Negotiations in the Public Space
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Wolfgang Schmale
On the Semantics of Male Nudity and Sexuality. A Retrospective
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat
The Finest Behind in Vienna. The Traun River God of the Providentia Fountain by Georg Raphael Donnerand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Michael Krapf
For and Against Winckelmann
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Thomas Rand#246;ske
Superior and Fragile. On the Aesthetic of Nudity since Winckelmann
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Thomas D. Trummer
The Man Who Sawed off the Branch. Richard Gerstl and the Phantasm of the Artistand#8217;s Own Self
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Diethard Leopold
Stripped Bare but not Exposed. The Male Nude in American Art
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jonathan Weinberg
Naked Masculinity as a Representation of the State. Nude Figures during the National Socialist Era
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Elke Frietsch
Male Bodies as Contested Terrain. Depictions of Demasculinization and Remasculinization in the Contemporary Performative Arts
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Katharina Pewny
Nude Men in Advertising
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Erich Kirchler and Pia Kirchler
PLATES
Prologueand#8212;The Long Tradition
Focus 1: The Power of Reason. Classicism and Enlightenment
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Nude Life Class and its Consequences
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Classical Ideal. Measure and Projection
and#160;and#160;and#160; Heroes as a Cultural Pattern
Focus 2: Classical Modernism
and#160;and#160;and#160; Social Bathing
and#160;and#160;and#160; Vienna around 1900: Gerstland#8212;Schieleand#8212;Kolig
and#160;and#160;and#160; Sorrow
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Battle of the Sexes and Denial
Focus 3: After 1945
and#160;and#160;and#160; Female Gazes
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Male Gaze: Intimate Proximity and Desire
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Self between Norms and Revolt
APPENDIX
Short biographies of the artists and the list of exhibited works
Bibliography
Photo Credits
The Authors
Lenders and Acknowledgements
Imprint