Dialogue Between the Soul and the Naked Body: Ten Western Modern Artists and Their Models

Author: Leng Shan / Ye Bing (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: This is not a book solely about Marcel Duchamp, nor is it a comprehensive discussion of 20th-century female nudes. This book describes and studies ten important 20th-century artists and the erotic, emotional, and sensitive themes expressed in their works. It showcases ten ways in which psychologically complex artists perceive women. This is a book about artists and their models, a book that portrays these artistic bachelors and their "bride" models. This is a book about artists and their models, a book that portrays these artistic bachelors and their "bride" models. The book describes and studies ten important 20th-century artists and the erotic, emotional, and sensitive themes expressed in their works. It showcases ten ways in which psychologically complex artists perceive women. This is an artistic examination and contemplation of ten male selves on the other half of humanity, reflected, solidified, condensed, and abstracted through artistic techniques in their respective works. Here are their complex feelings and complexes toward women—admiration, passionate love, desire, reverence, fear, indifference, transcendence, and even hatred. This is not a book solely about Marcel Duchamp, nor is it a comprehensive discussion of 20th-century female nudes. It does not include all the important artists who have painted or sculpted naked women over the past century. Most 20th-century figurative paintings, like portraits, remain relatively calm and unassuming, as most artists still hold an instinctive respect for the human form. Nevertheless, many of the most outstanding and radical artists of the 20th century often excessively depicted or sculpted the human body. When it comes to questions like "Who are we," "Where do we come from," "Where are we going," and "How do we love," no other art form can provide a more direct and fundamental answer than figurative art. This is because the concept of the nude embodies the ideals of honesty and openness. For artists, the model is an unmistakable invitation to express their self more freely and intimately, as well as human desire and distance. Whether through Cubism, Surrealism, or New Realism, the solitary artist, through depicting the model, essentially declares to the world that he has something unique and personal to say about this subject, and the model standing between him and the world serves as a soft medium of communication between them.