Thom Neill, Searching, 2014, digital print on Endura metallic paper
Excerpted from the Curator's Statement:
"Representations of the male form have played a major role in the history of Western art... Despite the significance that trajectory has had in both academia and the art world, male figuration is currently an infrequently exhibited genre of art. This exhibition is intended to address that incongruity by providing a brief survey of works... The artists included in the exhibition are Bruce Adams, Nick Butler, Max Collins, Kevin Kline, Craig LaRotonda, Cristiano F. Lopes, Michael Mararian, Thom Neill, Paul Rybarczyk, Donald J. Siuta, C.J. Szatkowski, Chuck Tingley, Adam Weekley and Mark
Zahm."
CURATOR TALK: Saturday, September 26, 2 p.m.
Studio Hart Gallery on Allen St, Buffalo, NY, September 4 - 26, 2015
Studio Hart is open Tuesday - Friday, 11:30 - 3:30, and Saturday, noon to 4:00.
"Representations of the male form have played a major role in the history of Western art... Despite the significance that trajectory has had in both academia and the art world, male figuration is currently an infrequently exhibited genre of art. This exhibition is intended to address that incongruity by providing a brief survey of works... The artists included in the exhibition are Bruce Adams, Nick Butler, Max Collins, Kevin Kline, Craig LaRotonda, Cristiano F. Lopes, Michael Mararian, Thom Neill, Paul Rybarczyk, Donald J. Siuta, C.J. Szatkowski, Chuck Tingley, Adam Weekley and Mark
Zahm."
CURATOR TALK: Saturday, September 26, 2 p.m.
Studio Hart Gallery on Allen St, Buffalo, NY, September 4 - 26, 2015
Studio Hart is open Tuesday - Friday, 11:30 - 3:30, and Saturday, noon to 4:00.
Nick Butler, Untitled (George), 2015, digital print on luster paper
in 2014, Colin Dabkowski of the Buffalo News noted that two shows were up simultaneously in Buffalo which featured the male nude. This sparked the interest of artist, collector and curator Gerald Mead. Dabkowski's description of "unclad" male figures became an alternative to "nude" which Mead adapted to his exploration of this uncommon art form.
"Unclad" fits 14 artists into the diminutive Studio Hart with skill: the effect is one of many small meditations which require patient looking. The perspectives on the male body, all by inhabitants of a male body, work in conversation with each other to provoke many avenues of thought: What about the unclad male seems more empowered than the female nude? (Is it the female nude's role in Orientalism? The general dominance of male will to control art and imagery? Our cultural bias toward shows of physical strength?)
In my conversation with the curator we discussed the problem of the press image: Can a full frontal work of art run in the Gusto? Can it happily live in the bay window of an Allen St. Gallery? (Technically yes. Ideally, it's complicated.) There is a notable accessibility to indirect nudity, which we are constantly exposed to in athletic and advertising imagery, while explicit nudes have an opaque purpose. They could be pornographic, but if they are not, what do they signify? (The capitalist's lament: How can I exist if I am not buying or selling anything?")
Meanwhile, I asked if another show was forthcoming, with female artists portraying the male nude. Another list of potential artists is already underway. For now, lady-artists will have to content themselves for winning massively in the nude race of the sexes:
"Unclad" fits 14 artists into the diminutive Studio Hart with skill: the effect is one of many small meditations which require patient looking. The perspectives on the male body, all by inhabitants of a male body, work in conversation with each other to provoke many avenues of thought: What about the unclad male seems more empowered than the female nude? (Is it the female nude's role in Orientalism? The general dominance of male will to control art and imagery? Our cultural bias toward shows of physical strength?)
In my conversation with the curator we discussed the problem of the press image: Can a full frontal work of art run in the Gusto? Can it happily live in the bay window of an Allen St. Gallery? (Technically yes. Ideally, it's complicated.) There is a notable accessibility to indirect nudity, which we are constantly exposed to in athletic and advertising imagery, while explicit nudes have an opaque purpose. They could be pornographic, but if they are not, what do they signify? (The capitalist's lament: How can I exist if I am not buying or selling anything?")
Meanwhile, I asked if another show was forthcoming, with female artists portraying the male nude. Another list of potential artists is already underway. For now, lady-artists will have to content themselves for winning massively in the nude race of the sexes:
In Edward Lucie-Smith's Adam: The Male Figure in Art, we read that "No image in our culture evokes a more powerful taboo than the male nude." In Unclad there are many interpretations of this taboo, from self-portraits, icons, and academic work to commissions for articles and impressionistic paintings. There is a range of queer and straight artists, and the degree of desire intended shifts and eludes strict interpretation with so many works side by side. This tangle of aesthetics and sensuality reveals our mess of societal norms: The work ranges from the 1970's to the present, and reflects various cycles of repression and permissiveness.
What does it say about us that the MOST mundane thing in our lives; the flesh we live in, is treated like a secret that would shock and offend? The penis is a kind of political barometer: the more we must hide it, the more afraid our society is of the vulnerable truth about ourselves. It is a political act to expose this vulnerability, to let go of the pretenses of toxic masculinity and be open. Stripped bare, the idea that we are lords over all creation seems particularly absurd.
Kevin Kline, #36 from the White Elephant Series, 2011-14, digital print
It is this openness that we are in love with. Not in the schadenfreude sense of tabloid celebrity-shaming beach photos, but in embracing the ultimate artistic taboo of the male nude, or of male vulnerability, there is an ultimate pleasure of freedom from pretense.
One problem with this concept in practice is the generally idealized nude forms in "Unclad." Divorcing the eye from objectification is a challenge for every portrait artist, and not a requirement. But in seeking liberation from concealment, censorship, repression, I personally feel that representation of many bodies is another great political act by the curator and/or artist.
One problem with this concept in practice is the generally idealized nude forms in "Unclad." Divorcing the eye from objectification is a challenge for every portrait artist, and not a requirement. But in seeking liberation from concealment, censorship, repression, I personally feel that representation of many bodies is another great political act by the curator and/or artist.
Bruce Adams, Fish & Bicycle #8, 1997-98, oil on paper
I leave with many avenues to explore: Does the sexual preference and gender identification of an artist translate into their making? Gender is central in our cultural conversation right now. Sex, while separate, is increasingly understood as spectrum-based rather than binary.
What can Trans-Men, Fluid-gendered, and Asexual artists teach us about the male nude? How does nudity function for artists and activists looking to build representation for #BlackLivesMatter? Can this taboo/vulnerability be used to break down harmful cliches of masculinity?
What can Trans-Men, Fluid-gendered, and Asexual artists teach us about the male nude? How does nudity function for artists and activists looking to build representation for #BlackLivesMatter? Can this taboo/vulnerability be used to break down harmful cliches of masculinity?
Max Collins, Self Portrait from the No More Talking Series, 2012, digital print on luster paper
"Unclad" is a stone in the cultural stream, stubbornly forging an alternate route. There is so much work to be done by curators and artists in opening up a dialogue on masculinity. Art and representation can empower a shift toward vulnerability, honesty, and the naked truth.
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