The Naked and the Nude Power Point presentation
- Slides: 10
The Naked and the Nude Power. Point presentation By Elizabeth Colvin Adapted 7/27/01 By Elizabeth Drake-Boyt SE version
In his essay, “The Naked and the Nude” Kenneth Clark distinguishes between these terms: What is the difference between Naked and Nude? How are these differences negotiated in works of art? Is pornography a type of photographic art? Why or why not?
Why does Clark believe an understanding of art includes the nude? Do you agree that the way In which nudes are part of Our art traditions defines our Culture? Why or why not?
If art is a matter of rendering more perfect the real, then what does Clark believe to be the role of the photographer? Often in looking at the natural and animal world we joyfully identify ourselves with what we see and from this happy union create a work of art (Clark: 236) What does this statement mean to you?
What are the two critical interpretations of the ideal? Why was it so important to the Greeks and those who followed to render the human form in geometric proportions?
Clark cites various ways of looking at the human body represented in the arts of different cultures. Are they same or different?
There are other branches of human experience of which the naked body provides a reminder— harmony, energy, ecstasy, humility, pathos. . . as if the nude as a means of expression is of universal and eternal value. . . (Clark: 238) Why does Clark say this is not true?
DISCUSSION QUESTION: How do our aesthetics of beauty affect the way we see the nude in art? “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. . . ” Francis Bacon
Bibliography • Kenneth Clark, “The Naked and the Nude”from The Philosophy of the Visual Arts, Edited by Philip Alperson. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 1992
List of Illustrations • Slide #2: Art Nouveau frieze design, from The Woman in Art Nouveau • Slide #3: Roman marble: “Discus Thrower”, copy of a bronze by the Greek Myron (approx 450 BC) from The Story of Art, plate 53, page 58. • Slide #4: Henry Moore: “Recumbent Figure”, 1938. From The Story of Art, plate 384, page 467. • Slide #5: Blake: “The Ancient of Days”, 1794. From The Story of Art, plate 322, page 387. • Slide #6: Goya: “The Giant”, 1820. From The Story of Art, plate 321, page 386. • Slide #7: Gregory Gillespie: “Self-portrait (Torso)”, 1975. From Arts and Ideas, plate 442, page 476.
