Bare Paper
Part of Stories from the SAM Collection
Sep 21 2024 - Mar 3 2025
Shepparton Art Musuem
Part of Stories from the SAM Collection
Sep 21 2024 - Mar 3 2025
Shepparton Art Musuem
Nudes on paper from the SAM Collection
‘The Nude’ is a genre of art that traditionally idealises the human form, in contrast to the concept of being "naked", which implies an individual's state of being. The unclothed human figure has a long history in art, but it became formalised as a genre through Academy-style art education. Students at prestigious institutions like the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris or the Royal Academy in London were only permitted to work from life after mastering drawing from casts and prints, establishing a hierarchy where the nude symbolised artistic mastery.
Historically, works of art with naked subjects were displayed in restricted or private spaces, like palaces. However, over time these works have been recontextualised for public consumption, shifting from private collections to public galleries. This change was supported by cultural shifts, where viewing art, including ‘the nude,’ became a marker of education, taste, and social status.
Self-portraits in which artists depict themselves nude introduce agency, allowing them to control their representation. Unlike the passive, idealised figures of traditional nudes, these self-portraits assert the subject’s autonomy as they become the architects of their own image.
The selection of works displayed here demonstrates a range of approaches to the genre, from distortions that de-sexualise the subject, to references to famous nudes like François Boucher’s Nude on a Sofa, 1752, and Édouard Manet’s Olympia, 1863. Whether through the immediacy of photography or gestural mark-making, these works explore themes of agency, desire, and the human condition, contrasting de-sexualisation of the figure with the transmission of physical desire through manipulations of the human form.
‘The Nude’ is a genre of art that traditionally idealises the human form, in contrast to the concept of being "naked", which implies an individual's state of being. The unclothed human figure has a long history in art, but it became formalised as a genre through Academy-style art education. Students at prestigious institutions like the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris or the Royal Academy in London were only permitted to work from life after mastering drawing from casts and prints, establishing a hierarchy where the nude symbolised artistic mastery.
Historically, works of art with naked subjects were displayed in restricted or private spaces, like palaces. However, over time these works have been recontextualised for public consumption, shifting from private collections to public galleries. This change was supported by cultural shifts, where viewing art, including ‘the nude,’ became a marker of education, taste, and social status.
Self-portraits in which artists depict themselves nude introduce agency, allowing them to control their representation. Unlike the passive, idealised figures of traditional nudes, these self-portraits assert the subject’s autonomy as they become the architects of their own image.
The selection of works displayed here demonstrates a range of approaches to the genre, from distortions that de-sexualise the subject, to references to famous nudes like François Boucher’s Nude on a Sofa, 1752, and Édouard Manet’s Olympia, 1863. Whether through the immediacy of photography or gestural mark-making, these works explore themes of agency, desire, and the human condition, contrasting de-sexualisation of the figure with the transmission of physical desire through manipulations of the human form.
Images: Bare Paper in Stories from the SAM Collection, installation view, Shepparton Art Museum 2024. Photo:Leon Schoots