The Imperfect Nude

If you walked into the current exhibition at Exeter Phoenix without reading the blurb, you might think that you'd stumbled upon yet another show by a Devon art society.  The walls are stacked, floor to ceiling, with over 100 paintings centred on naked figures: some technically good but rather dull, some intriguing, some funny, some a bit tasteless, some downright bad.

However, a closer look tells you something's not quite right. There's a palpable sense of awkwardness, only half covered by a smirking sense of irony. Curators Dan Coombs and Phillip Allen assembled this collection by asking contemporary artists who more usually work in abstract or non-representational ways to respond to the subject of 'The Perfect Nude'.

The curators describe the 'the nude' as being neglected in contemporary art - and perhaps it is, in the sense of the study of a posed model (the late Lucian Freud aside). But, in fact, the naked body is ever-present in contemporary painting: in images appropriated from advertising, newspapers, art history, pornography and other reference sources. And that's largely what's on offer here.

For many contemporary UK artists the thought of standing in a studio, paint brush in hand, scrutinising another living, breathing person is beyond the pale; even though  20 or 30 years ago it was what many artists did, and the life class was still the foundation of any art training. The gallery blurb touches on the argument about the terms naked and nude, pitting art historian Kenneth Clark against art critic John Berger. In fact, many now see the study of the naked human form as an unfit subject for art - both because it implies objectification of the person and because it's been done to death.

Though there are some interesting paintings here, I'm most intrigued by the artists who seem to have cast back to old art school days and produced classically posed 'realistic' nudes, some of which have wobbly unconnected heads, tube-like limbs and poorly delineated hands and feet. Are these deliberately bad paintings? Are these artists presenting themselves to us naked and vulnerable? "I've done my best but see, it's true, many successful modern artists can't represent the human form in paint".

So, is it time to stop being so prudish, face up to our inadequacies and get back to the life room - or was it a lucky escape from an irrelevant, even suspect, genre?
 
The Perfect Nude runs 29 March - 12 May 2012 at Exeter Phoenix Galleries, Bradninch Place, Gandy Street, Exeter, EX4 3LS.http://theperfectnude.wordpress.com 

See also my blog entry about life class http://gabriellehoad.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/naked-truth.html