The Male & Female Nude in
Art
How have things changed over time?

The Role of Men & Women in
the Early Years of the Artworld
Artworld
Artists
Curators
Critics &
Historians
Audience
Subject Matter
& Models
Patrons
Commissioners
 Which fields
were
dominated by
which
genders?
 Why might
this have been
the case?
 Did fields
have a
presence of
the minority
gender, and if
so, why were
they not

The Male Nude in Art
 Click the link below to view a visual
timeline of the progression of the male
nude in art.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n
b8eM8XQoo

The Male Nude in Art
 What changes did you notice in the
depiction of males as time
progressed?
 Why do you think males were depicted
in the ways that they were?
 Who is the audience?

The Female Nude in Art
 Click the link below to view a visual
timeline of the progression of the
female nude in art.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B
Mgu0H05Qxs

The Female Nude in Art
 What changes did you notice in the
depiction of females as time progressed?
 Why do you think females were depicted
in the ways that they were?
 Who is the audience?

Society, the Audience &
Rebellion
 How might society influence the way
that artists and the artworld chose and
then depicted it’s subjects?
 How might the audience influence
what artists and the artworld display
and promote what it creates?
 How does the idea of rebellion sit with
the two concepts discussed above?

Rebellion
 We’ve seen that art creates to appease it’s society and
audience in a passive response, but what about if it rebels?
 Take a look at the poster and artwork below, Do women have
to be naked to get into the Met. Museum by The Guerrilla
Girls (1989). Discuss this piece and the issue it is addressing.

Rebellion
 In 2005, the Guerrilla Girls stated that they returned to the
Met. In 2004 to do a recount, to see if their message had
been noted. There were in fact less female artists than
previously counted.
 The Guerrilla Girls will be studied in more detail later on in the
coming weeks.

Art Critic’s Perspective
 John Berger ‘Ways of Seeing’
(1972) YouTube Playlist 
 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLJ2HBG3iS1868uKrjRQ-
T0uDvbx4QWqPK
 This is a four part YouTube Video
of a documentary by art critic
John Berger in the early 1970s.
We’ll watch the first one and have
a discussion about how you feel
the opinions expressed in the
documentary, stand in today’s
society.
 HOMEWORK: Finish watching
the videos and list at least three
of what, for you, were the most
interesting points, questions, or
thoughts raised or addressed in