The Naked Portrait (U00928)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : ACE-4-HNaked

A specialised course investigating a strand within the wider development of the modern portrait, apparent in both fine art and photography. Naked portraits affirm and interpret the specific identity of the individual portrayed, but conceived in terms other than the social facade projected by clothing. The obvious distinction with the category of the Nude is between particularised sitters and anonymous models. Certain themes may be identified:
- The type involves echoes of the formats and materials that characterise the classical and neo-classical precedents for naked portraiture. The naked bust format underpins work by such figures as Epstein, Picasso, and Koons. Quinn's recent sculptures of disabled sitters evoke the broken figures and marble materials of antique statuary.
- The many artists who have chosen to present themselves naked include Schiele, Modersohn-Becker, Corinth, Schad, Arikha, Gilbert and George, Freud, Coplans, Bevan, and Emins.
- Images by artists of their lovers, spouses and partners, channelling feelings of love and sexual desire, include Stieglitz's images of Georgia O'Keefe, Spencer's portrayals of himself and Patricia Preece, Giacometti's paintings and sculptures of his wife Annette, Hockney's images of Peter Schlesinger, and Goldin's strikingly casual and intimate imagery of her lovers.
- Images of naked individuals might also address the cycles of human existence, from birth to childhood, maturity, old age and death. One thinks of Dijkstra's haunting images of named young women holding their new born infants; portrayals of unclothed children, a controversial strand of imagery, in the work of Schiele or Mann; portraits of elderly sitters (Manchot); images of mortal illness (Spence); and posthumous naked portraits (Bacon, Mueck).
- The vogue for nakedness in the portrayal of celebrities has been a trend since the 1960s. The emergence and evolution of this genre can be traced in the work of Bailey, Morley, Leibowitz etc.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : A pass in either History of Art 2 or Architectural History 2a and 2b

? Prohibited combinations : This course is not available to students on the BA Humanities and Social Science degree.

Variants

? This course has variants for part year visiting students, as follows

The Naked Portrait(VS1) (Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2))

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History of Art, (School of Arts, Culture and Environment, Schedule A)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
21/09/2006	09:00	10:50

? Additional Class Information : Seminars will take place on Thursdays 9-10.50am and 11.10-1pm. Students will attend one of these.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

These include:
- Knowledge and understanding of the body of material described above.
- The challenges associated with studying a field which, at present, lacks the systematic scholarly literature to which students might normally have had access in relation to the art of the modern period.
- Studying the naked portrait will challenge students to address complex issues of cultural interpretation. It will be essential to consider how artists' diverse conceptions were informed not just by current artistic issues, and by any personal feelings towards the self/sitter, but also by, for example, internalised assumptions and attitudes towards the nature of personal identity, the role of gender, sexuality and age in defining conceptions of the identity of self and others, and ideological and philosophical standpoints. Indeed, this type of imagery may even be seen as symptomatic of aspects of the sense of self in modern culture. The naked portrait as an artistic genre coincides chronologically with the currency of other manifestations of the impulse to expose or reveal what is true or fundamental, beneath the superficial surface veneer - the psychoanalytical project of stripping away the social to reveal the deep or private self, the acknowledgement and celebration of sexuality as a key human drive, the post-Darwinian sense of continuity between human and animal, the 'primitivist' sensibility in many areas of artistic activity, the enhanced emphasis on the bodily roots of identity.