The living model, the naked body of a woman…
ARDOR – 48″ x 36″, acrylic on canvas – A.D. Cook
The living model, the naked body of a woman, is the privileged seat of feeling, but also of questioning?
The model must mark you, awaken in you an emotion which you seek in turn to express.
Henri Matisse
When an artist or student draws a nude figure with painstaking care, the result is drawing, and not emotion.
Henri Matisse
The nude, if you tackle it, is a very fascinating subject, especially for a woman.
Isabel Bishop
LUX – mixed-media – A.D. Cook
Traditionally the Nude was used to express formulations about life as larger-than-life, as Heroic or Ideal? The nude is not a genre subject.
Isabel Bishop
Painting figures is the hardest, certainly the most taxing genre, and you have to be the most on your game.
If you have significant drawing problems, the figure will fall apart and it will read wrong emotionally.
Jacob Collins
Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.
John Berger
SOLITAIRE – 24 x 72″, acrylic on canvas – A.D. Cook
To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself.
John Berger
It matters not what kind of figure-pictures he (the artist) wishes to paint, he will never be able to draw the figure properly, whether draped or otherwise, unless he has gone through a preliminary course of study from the nude.
John Collier
Being naked approaches being revolutionary; going barefoot is mere populism.
John Updike
Art is about showing and seeing: to show that which is concealed, to see what was veiled, is fundamentally gripping.
Jonathan Jones
In celebration of the female nude, I’ve assembled a selection of great quotes about beauty and the nakedness of women, their role as Muse and their eternal contribution to the arts. I’ve sprinkled a few of my paintings to express my appreciation for the muse in the best way I know how.
Enjoy.
A. D. Cook
Guest blog by artist A. D. Cook
Nov 15, 2014