Egon Schiele

Nude figures have been featured in art works since around 30 to 25,000 B.C. And throughout the history of art, we can see a lot of artists being inspired and influenced by great talents before them, in one way or another they would carry the style or ideas of those previous artists into their own art and create new masterpieces. One particular example is Édouard Manet’s Olympia from the Realism period, and Yasumasa Morimura’s Futago. The two paintings share great similarities in their composition, but the content and purpose of the paintings, and style wise the two pieces are very different.

As you begin Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body your read of author Susan Bordo spilling her morning coffee over a shockingly sexual advisement of a nude man. Initially, I rolled my eyes and settled in assuming, I was going to read about the tragedy of how men are now being objectified and exposed in adverting like women. As I flip through the pages looking at the scantily clad images I’m not really shocked; this essay was written fifteen years ago; I see these kinds of images going to the mall. What was shocking, however, was how Bordo a published, woman philosopher born in 1947 wrote about these images. I felt myself blush as I read “it seems slightly erect, or perhaps that’s his nonerect size, either way, there’s a substantial presence

In Schenck v. United States, Charles Schneck was a member of the executive committee of the Socialist party during WW1. He was in charge of printing and distributing of 15,000 fliers to discourage men from submitting to the draft. The U.S government under Woodrow Wilson however had passed the Espionage act of 1917, which had made speech like Schneck’s illegal because it acted as interference to military operations and recruitment. The Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that Schneck’s conviction was constitutional. The reasoning given was that because this was a time of war justice Holmes said, “the question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring

The contrast between the light cream background and the maroon blouse have successfully drawn in viewers attention. The contrasting colours have made the overall artwork standout. The viewers eyes are snatched towards the vibrant red then it is directed to Kramer’s peaceful expression. Her expression is identified as the focal point of the painting. It encapsulates the meaning of stillness expressing the relaxation and tranquilness. Greensmith had chosen to use a variety of different colour tones to help sculpt and emphasis Kramer’s features. The use of darker shades towards her left side creates a shadow, indicating her angled sitting position.

In this production by Gerald Laing, a young and fit woman can be seen. She appears to come from a model background as she has a toned figure that is slender and curvy. She is standing in a confident posed position with a hand on her hip. It appears the artist attempts to position her short lengthened, dark hair in a way that portrays the wind is blowing it. She is wearing a swimming suit that covers minimal. She is placed on the right half of the portrait. The artwork does not contain any other people or objects in the piece. Laing completes the print using only three shades of color: gold, grey, and dark grey/black. The gold background quickly catches the eye. Also, the gold is the color of the swimming suit that covers the model’s bottom half and chest suggesting that the artist wanted to draw attention to these specific body parts. Overall, the print is organized and has a neat appearance.

One of the top places in London to view amazing street art besides the Leake Street Tunnel, Shoreditch and Brick Lane, is the colourful Camden Town. Nestled along the side streets off Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road you can find work from many well renowned, international and local artists such as Otto Schade, Onesto, Pegasus and Gnasher.

In Schiele’s other self-portrait cataloged here Squatting Man (Self-Portrait), Schiele confronts the viewer. It is the first image seen here that actually makes contact with the viewer. The eyes which are often seen as the mirror to the soul stare back at the viewer in a challenging and unashamed way. The position the figure is in is also one that alludes to birth as did his Nude Self-Portrait, the colors here are a blend of cooler colors – browns, blues and grays fill in the figures body which is one of the only full body self-portraits done of Schiele himself. The blend of purples, blues, and browns here could evoke a sense of death or a decaying/ sick person or corpse. Also the colors can be associated with bruising on the skin. There is an undertone of questioning of sexuality here as Schiele draws himself squatting a position that is not usually seen as masculine in nature. His head is tilted to one side as well almost in a questioning and unsure posture as his hands are folded over the lower part of his naked form concealing his manhood. The squatting position is also associated with release through the form of using the bathroom which could have something to do with the colors of brown used here . “It has been noted that frontal self-portraits possess a healing function for artists in times of crisis and transition”. Schiele who does a series of paintings and self-portraits in a crouching position (this one being one of the first) uses this crouching position to talk

The oil painting is an attempt to map the motion and energy of the body. It is a sequential depiction of movement split into a series of about twenty different static positions that show a nude figure descending a flight of stairs. The nude, like the notion of the painting, is abstract, composed of conical and cylindrical shapes and elements, assembled in a way that suggests the rhythm of the body when going downstairs. The colours used are those typical of Cubist paintings - ochres and browns. This is because Cubists felt that using a

“Figure in interior” also shares a coincidental or perhaps synchronous comparability with artists who dealt with the figure in similar ways, such as Marcel Duchamp [see his “Two nudes” (Fig 2-5, 1910)] and Leonard Foujita [“Nu a la toile de jouy” (Fig 2-6, 1922)]. There is also a certain resemblance, albeit potentially coincidental, between Shinnors’ figures, Cézanne’s treatment of facial physiognomics, and Louis le Brocquy’s “Head” series (1979 - 1999). Like Cézanne and Shinnors, le Brocquy’s aim was not to paint a faithful representational portrait, but was informed by the way he perceived the human head as a “mysterious box” and the face as “the outer reality of the invisible interior world of consciousness”. Indeed, le Brocquy’s approach

She further analyzed many artworks based on the process of toning. Though some artists paint with one layer, those that paint with multiple layers enhances the objects in the painting. The color that appears on the surface underwent multiple shades in order to obtain the desirable color. After analyzing Ship Carpenter at His Hobby, 1872, Helena’s second group approached the artwork Women Embroidering, 1904. Two differences I distinguished from the comparison of these two artworks are the time period as well as the visual context. I had paid less attention to the story behind this portrait because there was less detail. Women Embroidery, though looked unique because of its lack of details (which could have been intentional), did not have much space. Helena described it as “flat.” She infers that as time period increases, artists were becoming more focused on flatness, painting on the surface and ignoring the layers of tone and landscape space. Another artwork that we analyzed was the Back Surgery. Dating back to the 1600s, this portrait was created with underpaintings and a few touch ups. It could be inferred that the artist intended to leave the underpainting in order to bring out the procedure. On the surface lies a realistic, colored curtain that seemed to have been drawn by the audience, and staring straight at the artist/audience was the patient. With these observations, I

Also, collaged images of woman 's genitalia were cut out and spaced all around the portrait. The spaces were carefully used to show that the collages were floating around the woman. The artist used overlapping technique to show certain collage cut-out appear closer to the viewer. He pasted some collage over and some behind the woman that you could see through with the overlapping. The collage images were abstract that you could barely tell that they were buttocks until you zoom in and see them close up.

The art world has been host to a vast menagerie of talent, intellect, and creativity for about as long as human culture has existed. It has grown, developed, and changed just as humanity has. Naturally, with such an impressively expansive history, various avenues of art are visited time and time again by new artists. Artists seek not only to bring their own personal flavor and meaning to timeless concepts, but to find new ways to approach them. While not every single creator and craftsman can make such a great impact on art or the world, their efforts have given birth to some truly magnificent and unique works. In an effort to create a more meaningful understanding, as well a deeper appreciation, of the nuances, techniques, and design choices employed in these attempts, a comparison will be made between Edouard Vuillard’s Interior With a Screen (1909-1910) and Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra) (1907). In this essay, each artist’s approach to the subject of the female nude will be closely analyzed, compared, and contrasted, as will their styles of painting, handling of visual elements, and their use of the principles of design. An interpretation of each work and what the artist intended when creating it will also be provided.

The portrait is displayed horizontally with a gold trimmed frame. The subject is a female that looks to be in her early 20’s sitting upright on a large brown chair. If the viewer travels up the painting the first indication of the woman’s class is her satin, blue dress. The saturated blue shines and falls in the light like water. Paired with the dress are her exceptionally detailed endings to her sleeves. The lace is even painted as though it is translucent, allowing a little of the blue dress to show through the sleeve. Flowers throughout history have symbolized innocence of a woman and her virginity. The repeating theme of flowers, in the sleeve cuffs and ribbon) in the woman’s attired suggests her purity or innocent nature. Another very details section of the painting includes the corset/torso details. The sewing suggests texture in the torso with small beading in between. Towards the top of the chest in the center, the female seems to bear an extravagant, ribbon piece with a tear drop bead in the center. The light pink

The era of Mannerism is renown for its increasingly complex works of art, much like the High Renaissance before it, and the discipline of sculpture is no exception. Out of this period comes more intricate poses, forms, and emphasis on the illusion of movement which is perhaps most evident in Giambologna's "The Rape of the Sabine Women". His sculpture depicts a young man attempting to carry a struggling young woman as he stands over the contorted body of an older man, either the woman's husband or father. What is interesting about this work is not only the realistic human forms and perceived chaos of the moment, but also the lack of a dominant side from which this sculpture would be viewed. In order to achieve these features, Giabologna utilizes a combination of various textures and diagonal lines to create the complete illusion of muscle, flesh, energy, and multiple focus points.

Heavily influenced by conceptual styles of Edgar Degas and John Singer Sargent, Liepke takes on the perspective of a flaneur, observing contemporary life whilst hoping to reveal the personalities and intimacies of his sitters. This sense of intimacy is expressed in Eternal, where a voyeuristic nude is captured through a realistic lens over a pornographic one that is alluring and honest despite bare appearance. Representing the female subject as someone to be liberated, Liepke manipulates stylistic poses for the nude model as she is rolled up like that of a child in a fetal position upon a dark and thick surface creating a contrast, suggesting protection and vulnerability being exposed. This mirrors the dominating psychological reactions of female citizens- being restricted and grounded in traditions of submissiveness and limited freedom in response to corrupt post modern expectations. Liepke reinvestigates the cultural representation of female roles in using vector lines that separate the background into three sections. Of which the stray brushwork in the gold, yellow ochre wall conveys a freedom of mind and casualness encapsulating majority of the figure yet not entirely. Being ‘quarantined’ by the pillars of sap green