Teen Nude Art Pictures

Teen Nude Art Pictures

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31 Jan 2022

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By Harriet Lloyd-Smith

The new nude? Radical show explores the naked body in photography

Malerie Marder, Plate #19 (2008-2013)

Julia SH, Studio Practice #5 (2017)

Bettina Pittaluga, Yseult, Paris , 2019

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‘Nude’ at Fotografiska New York will present a diverse survey of nude subjects in contemporary photography, which confronts the complex historical fascination with the naked body
The naked human body holds bewildering cultural gravity. This visceral and vulnerable machine, of which there are no exact copies, simultaneously carries beauty, ugliness, desire, eroticism, purity, reverie, politics, taboos, myriad identities and endless contradictions.
It’s subject to censorship, vulnerable to exploitation and sexualisation, yet, for centuries, has been a source of fixation in art. In the hierarchy of art history virtue, ‘nude’ has been ranked above ‘naked’. The former alludes to autonomy, respectability and objective study, devoid of crude sexuality. Naked, conversely, suggests unwilful exposure, scrutiny and shame. This is a rapidly eroding distinction that began when fearless feminist artists revolted in the mid-20th century. In contemporary art, nudity – a term so potently linked to a male gaze on women – appears to have lost its lustre, while nakedness is synonymous with truth and authenticity.
‘Nude’, an exhibition at Fotografiska New York will look back on this gaze, and look hard. The show, which opens on 11 February 2022, explores the naked body through different aesthetic lenses: poignant, macabre, glamorised and disorientating.
Though the show is limited to work by 30 female-identifying photographers (an effort to counteract male-dominated perspectives on nudity), the subject matter is not limited by gender identity. Featured artists, representing 20 nationalities, include nonbinary individuals, men, and women, among whom are transgender individuals sharing their surgical transitions. In an image by Japanese artist Momo Okabe, the subject is a confidently posed woman. Her breasts are surgically augmented; oestrogen has feminised her silhouette, yet she retains her male genitalia. In another series, Israeli-American photographer Elinor Carucci explores the human condition of midlife adulthood – with resolutely non-glamorous, stoically postured men and women in their fifties.
‘Unlike painting , photography is not a medium that has been “owned” by men for centuries. In art, we have mostly been presented with the same kind of nude through our modern Western history. A consideration most often decided and depicted by men, for an audience of men,’ says Johan Vikner, director of global exhibitions at Fotografiska. ‘This collection of contemporary female artists using the nude body as their language, be it their own or others, for the sake of art, beauty, representation, self-expression, as a subject and object, is an example of what this new nude is and what it looks like.’
‘Nude’ emphasises that even in an age of increased consciousness, there are some naked human bodies that are seen more than others. This still seems prevalent in advertising, where smooth-skinned, firm-bodied ideals peddle youth and beauty as the currencies worth circulating.
But under this flawless skin is a rotten deception, one deepened by a social-media saturated society. ‘Most of the bodies we see online on a daily basis aren’t even real, but rather enhanced or modified by technology to conform to a current, unsustainable trend,’ says LA-based photographer Julia SH, who is exhibiting powerful, textured portraits of bodies rarely depicted in 21st-century media, presented in museum-like frames. ‘In the US, what little nudity permitted is usually shown in a sexual context. Seeing nudes in a museum is one of the only exceptions to this. I created a series where I framed my models as sculptures and works of art in the hope that the viewer will suspend any judgments about whether they find the models sexually attractive or not, or whether their bodies are socially “acceptable”. The more body types we are exposed to, the more pragmatic our view will become.’
French-Uruguayan photographer Bettina Pittaluga’s work in ‘Nude’ focuses on physical intimacy, which, as the artist explains, ‘can be revealed by being in someone’s personal space, or bonding through physical contact, by skinship. What interests me [about] nudity, from a pictorial and emotional point of view, is the expression of the skin. It necessarily involves the other senses because it is impossible not to see, hear and smell people when you are close enough to touch them.’
But why does Pittaluga think it’s important for contemporary photography to offer visibility to all body types? ‘I hope that one day this kind of question will no longer exist,’ she says. ‘I am focused on giving a voice and visibility to those who are not or too little represented. It is very important to me to do everything to deconstruct this hegemony, I am committed to invoking all these fights until they are won.’
Arvida Byström is presenting Cherry Picking. The series is a mix of still lifes and selfies, both of which have been feminised and dismissed as ‘low brow’, according to the artist. Her work also alludes to the tension between nudity and censorship on social media, which is the subject of fierce debate. ‘I also have a photo of my friend Adam Pettersson’s bum and balls through Lazoschmidl underwear with a cherry on top. It’s a photo that I love but that is very hard to post and show through the big online platforms, so I am very happy to show it to a wide audience,’ she says. ‘What I’m showing isn’t necessarily underrepresented bodies, and I do personally feel there is an issue to see this as a virtue in itself; what happens when these bodies have been represented for a while? Are they all of a sudden irrelevant? With that said, it is very exciting and fun to see works in a wide array of expressions including different body shapes. I think everyone will find at least one photographer they like in this show!’
Although broad and complex in content, the curatorial focus of ‘Nude’ is distilled. It portrays the body through beautiful, disruptive, and experimental lenses, subverting the historically dominant male gaze and celebrating the human form in all its rich variety. This is not nakedness under a veil of nudity, this is nakedness as power. §

Prue Stent, Honey Long Scallop , 2016
Denisse Ariana Perez, from ongoing Men In Water series taken in Senegal, 2020
’Nude’, 11 February-1 May 2022, Fotografiska New York. fotografiska.com
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Posted 12 Aug 2021, by
Andrew Shore
Trawling through Art UK, I came across this 1927 work by the artist George Spencer Watson .
It was the first painting in the collection of The Harris in Preston to feature a naked woman. As such, it was controversial, and some Councillors thought it would corrupt the morals of Prestonians.
History has not recorded any specific debauchery or low moral behaviour in Preston as a result of this artwork's display.
Watson's works in UK collections are a strange mix of sombre portraits and sensuous nudes, and sure enough, another of his nudes is now in Bournemouth, in the collection of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum.
Photo credit: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
There is no specific reaction recorded to this particular painting, but it set me wondering if this had been a common occurrence in galleries throughout the land.
Surely the Preston nude can't be the only one that caused some controversy at the time... Well indeed not. Artistic nudes have had a complicated history, tied up with the male gaze, the public perception of what was 'decent' at different times in history, religion, and plenty of other factors.
There are famous examples that caused a stir in public such as Manet's Olympia and the 1917 exhibition of Modigliani's works that was closed, supposedly due to the depiction of pubic hair. There are private works not originally intended to be shown to the public, such as Goya's La Maya desnuda (The Naked Maja) and Courbet's L'Origine du monde (The Origin of the World) – both are now in major museums (the Prado and Musee D'Orsay respectively). But here's a quick look at some of the other works in the UK that have a salacious or saucy history.
The next nude on our list is by the firmly establishment figure of Sir Gerald Festus Kelly . Kelly was one of the foremost portrait artists of his time, and yet even his standing could not prevent a public backlash when this painting went on display in Newport Museum and Art Gallery in 1947.
© the copyright holder. Photo credit: Newport Museum and Art Gallery
To be fair to the denizens of 1940s Newport, the fuss seems to have been caused mainly by one man, Dorian Herbert, who was the bishop of Caerleon for a small independent group called the Ancient British Church. His sister had seen some girls sniggering at the work, so he (naturally) went to see the picture for himself. Clearly it left quite an impression as he subsequently described it as 'brazen, abandoned and vulgar'. This didn't stop 20,000 people queuing up to see it (perhaps it even helped), or Kelly later becoming the President of the Royal Academy.
When it was put on display in the gallery again in 2008 the biggest complaint this time was that the model was smoking. How times change...
Going back a little further, in 1914 a version of Auguste Rodin 's The Kiss was lent to Lewes Town Council for display in the Town Hall.
Originally conceived as just one part of the sculptor's large Gates of Hell , the embracing lovers are supposed to be Paolo and Francesca , who were real people but immortalised as a lustful couple in Dante's Divine Comedy .
Although the French public had embraced the work, the East Sussex town was perhaps not ready for the amorous subject matter. Soldiers were soon billeted in the Town Hall due to the start of the First World War, which led to this most famous of sculptures being draped in a tarpaulin. It was eventually acquired by the Tate in the 1950s and remains a firm favourite today.
You can find out more about its surprising history in this Tate Shots video.
Some of the issues around depicting female nudes are that nudity was traditionally fine for representing goddesses, personifications or other mythological beings, but not for actual real women.
This can be shown in the works of Philip Wilson Steer – for example, his Seated Nude: The Black Hat , painted around 1900.
Steer was another establishment figure. He taught at the Slade from 1893 to 1930 and in 1931 was awarded the Order of Merit. The objections to this work were that the hat is modern, and therefore the viewer sees the model as a contemporary, real woman – not Eve, not Venus, not 'Spring'.
This oil sketch was not exhibited until it was chosen for the Tate Gallery by the Director John Rothenstein directly from Steer's studio in 1941. Steer said: 'friends told me it was spoiled by the hat; they thought it indecent that a nude should be wearing a hat, so it's never been shown.'
A similar composition of his is the coyly titled The Panama Hat , where the focus is once again not really on the hat.
Photo credit: University of Aberdeen
Is it time for a nice cup of tea? Perhaps surprisingly for a portrait in a Scottish castle, this painting shows a lady drinking tea in the nude.
Photo credit: Kinloch Castle, Rum (NatureScot)
So far, so chilly. But why would this be considered scandalous? The reason is that it's thought that the model was the lady of the estate.
Close examination of the background, the red carpet and the lion skin, strongly indicates the Great Hall at Kinloch Castle as the location. From what we can see of the model's facial features, they are remarkably similar to photographs of Lady Bullough . The cup and saucer resemble pieces from a tea service in Lady Bullough's drawing room.
Posed away from the viewer, it's possible that this piece was always intended as a private piece for Sir George Bullough's eyes only (or indeed for one or more of her rumoured lovers ). That's clearly no longer the case, but it's a beautiful painting – the only known work by Louis Galliac in a UK public collection.
Drinking tea in the buff is apparently not uncommon, as shown by this lithograph by Leslie Cole of his wife Brenda.
© the artist's estate. Photo credit: Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
Back on the theme of artists painting the aristocratic ladies of the manor, it's worth looking at the case of Rex Whistler .
In 1936 Whistler was commissioned by Charles Paget (1885–1947), 6th Marquess of Anglesey to paint a trompe l'oeil for his country seat of Plas Newydd House in Wales. The finished work is an ambitious and fantastical mural , over 17.5 metres long – purportedly the largest work on canvas in the UK. Whistler undertook the commission on site, basically living with the Paget family for a couple of years while he progressed the work. During his stay he became infatuated with one of the Marquess' daughters, Lady Caroline Paget.
He painted her a number of times, including this nude.
Photo credit: National Trust Images
It's not known if Lady Caroline posed for the work or if it's from Whistler's imagination. We do know that although the pair were friends, ultimately his love was unrequited, and he was to die in the Second World War, killed in action in Normandy. It seems unlikely the nude study was ever shown to the Marquess, and yet today it is on display in the National Trust property.
Artists sometimes use family members as their models, and here Ivor Williams unusually depicts a tender moment with perhaps unexpected nudity – his proposal to his wife.
© the artist's estate. Photo credit: Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Trust
This reclining nude was also modelled by the artist's wife.
© the artist's estate. Photo credit: Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Trust
But why the extra title? When the artist's daughter was a young girl the painting went on display, and a friend exclaimed 'Oh look it's Brown Owl!' Mrs Williams was Brown Owl of the local Brownies, and the young girl recognised her. There's probably not a badge for that.
So far, perhaps unsurprisingly, we've seen quite a few nude women, and it does seem to have been women's nudity in public galleries that people have found so objectionable. However, there are a couple of male nudes that also caused something of a stir.
In the late 1920s, the artist Eric Kennington was commissioned to create a sculpture for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, intended to be situated above the School's Keppel Street entrance.
© courtesy of the family of the artist. Photo credit: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
As you can see, the panel depicts a mother and child being protected from a fanged serpent by a nude, bearded, knife-wielding father. However, the trustees of the School did not appreciate the display of male genitalia and would not allow it to be placed above the School's entrance unless Kennington added a loincloth.
As one would hope from an artist with integrity, he refused to censor or change his vision and so the work was placed
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