How Nudity in Photographs (or paintings) Can Be Conceived as Art?

[tlitody]

Maybe it's a good way to make money. :angel:

Do you think artists can afford to pay for models ?

 

[edmelvins]

Ask yourself two simple questions.
Why would an artist want a woman or man to take their clothes off before painting them? They could paint them with their clothes on.
Secondly why would a woman or a man want to take their clothes off and pose in front of a probable complete stranger to be painted in the nude. They could volunteer to be painted with their clothes on. Could it be vanity? Is it some intellectual exercise.

There is something going on here which has nothing to do with art which doesn't mean its not art but it does mean the motivation is most probably nothing to do with art. Animal instincts are always present even if the participants deny it. It's about getting their jollys by at least one of the participants and probably both.

Don't worry though, it's all done in the best possible taste (so they tell us).

That's a good point. 🙂

I also wonder why there are more nude images of women than of men (AFAIK). I think it's because it has become a common idea that the images of nude women please us more in a sexual way. Most people get offended / are disgusted by images of naked men because they see them less often and they are less pleasing to see.

But when it's images of women, one could be so quick to accept them as art. Technically, you're trying to appreciate the form, lines, and curvature of human's body. How are the lines different from those of a woman's breasts and a man's willy?

 

[Brian Legge]

And that is where the problem comes in. Sharing our personal standards often has an implicit or explicit judgement of others. This leads to defensive reactions and escalation.

 

[antiquark]

Do you think artists can afford to pay for models ?

Yes.
_____________

 

[edmelvins]

And that is where the problem comes in. Sharing our personal standards often has an implicit or explicit judgement of others. This leads to defensive reactions and escalation.

We're just having a light conversation with coffee on the table. 🙂

 

[back alley]

We're just having a light conversation with coffee on the table. 🙂

let's hope it stays that way.

 

[tlitody]

Yes.
_____________

Ah, so it's at least partly about selling your body for monetary gain to satisfy someone else. There's a word for that.

 

[antiquark]

Ah, so it's at least partly about selling your body for monetary gain to satisfy someone else. There's a word for that.

Yes, "modeling." 🙂

 

[zumbido]

Ah, so it's at least partly about selling your body for monetary gain to satisfy someone else. There's a word for that.

There's also a word for putting food in your mouth, chewing, and swallowing. Is that also a bad thing? 🙂

 

[zumbido]

Yes, "modeling." 🙂

Or "bricklayer", for that matter.

 

[Roger Hicks]

How can a representation of any subject be 'art'?

Has anyone else here been to Khajuraho? Google it if you don't know about it. Quite a lot of it makes you smile. Some of it's quite erotic, but why should we separate art and erotica?

For that matter, how many here have never photographed a nude in their life? My favourite photographic nude ever is Willy Ronis's Provençale Nude: beautiful, loving, happy... I've only ever shot a handful (as it were) of nudes in 60 years on Earth, but one or two of them, the very best, begin to have the faintest, slightest echo of the mood of that picture.

Why, incidentally, did tlitody assume that nude art involves 'probable complete strangers'? The vast majority of artists, photographers, sculptors, etc., that I've ever met who take the nude as their subjects are well acquainted with their models. Sure, when I was working as a photographic assistant in the 1970s, there were sometimes paid nude models -- but the relationship of advertising to art has always been problematic.

Cheers,

R.

 

[tlitody]

Or "bricklayer", for that matter.

Is that what you call an abstraction?

 

[totifoto]

I have been in art school and they made my do drawings and paintings of nude people. Reason: to study anatomy.

 

[tlitody]

I have been in art school and they made my do drawings and paintings of nude people. Reason: to study anatomy.

your userid says it all but being in Iceland you may not appreciate the english humour in that.

 

[antiquark]

Pray tell, why is nudity wrong? It's how we were born!

 

[zumbido]

Is that what you call an abstraction?

No. It's another word that precisely fits your definition. The point, of course, being to show that you deliberately chose an overly-inclusive definition to make it fit your ends. Which you had to do because modeling and prostitution are, in fact, two distinct things unless you are being metaphorical in your use of the word "prostitution". 🙂

 

[tlitody]

No. It's another word that precisely fits your definition. The point, of course, being to show that you deliberately chose an overly-inclusive definition to make it fit your ends. Which you had to do because modeling and prostitution are, in fact, two distinct things unless you are being metaphorical in your use of the word "prostitution". 🙂

LOL, if you want to play silly bu*gers then I didn't use the word prostitution and you in your typically preconceptive way jumped to that conclusion. You are guilty of exactly what you are accusing me of. There's a word for that too.

 

[dave lackey]

Ah, so it's at least partly about selling your body for monetary gain to satisfy someone else. There's a word for that.

As an architect/engineer, I have been doing THAT for years!🙂

 

[back alley]

a discussion soon to be closed...the bs and games are getting thick...

 

[hteasley]

First of all, I'd like to apologize if there's a thread for this topic before, but I have googled and searched this forum and found none. So here goes. <...>

But how can we really know if it's art or not? What arguments are there to support or reject it? Is it wrong to enjoy this kind of art?

There are two questions here: "What is Art?" and "Can Art be Pornography, and vice-versa?" The second question is, to my mind, uninteresting: it says nothing about Art or Pornography, and a lot about the person concerned with the answer to the question.

As to the first question, Art is anything that produces an aesthetic reaction in the audience. It's the only non-falsifiable definition I know, in that it successfully includes all Art, while successfully excluding all NotArt. For folks who don't love to dwell on silly questions like this, though, it's an unsatisfying answer, in that, within the infinity of the universe, there is an infinity of Art. A lot of people really hate the idea that there's an infinity of Art, or that the definition of Art can be so broad.

It has to be that broad, as far as I can tell. For every specific you try to add, I can find an example of Art that defies that specific. Art doesn't have to be created, there doesn't have to be an artist, or intention behind it, or communication, or skill. Anything you want to add, beyond "someone has to see it and perceive it aesthetically", will exclude some actual, obvious Art.