Lots of museum exhibitions around the world are focusing on the Nude Female in 2012. In my last NUDE & NAKED Exhibition I selected twelve internationally known nude photographers who submitted three images each. This year I selected photographers who specialize in female nudes and asked that they select five photographs of the same model: Kaitlyn. This year it is five east coast photographers, one female and four male, who shot with Kaitlyn over the past twelve months. Therefore, I hope that you will enjoy THE GIRL WITH THE CRESCENT MOONS TATTOO Exhibition.

Female Nudes have been found on prehistoric cave walls in Southern France. There are also the 2,000 year old erotic frescoes on the walls in Pompeii, the Indian erotic paintings of the 1600s and the Japanese Shunga Art of the late 1800s. Curiously, very few images of female nudes appear in the art of Northern Native Americans or Islamic cultures. Our story starts with the NUDE GIOCONDA by Leonardo Da Vinci’s star pupil Andrea Salai around 1500. This Nude has been traveling to various museums around the world.

Ever since the NUDE GIOCONDA was discovered, she has been controversial.

On 28 May 2012, officials at the National Gallery of Art reported that a woman attacked the Paul Gauguin painting TWO TAHITIAN WOMEN. Witnesses reported that the woman tried to pull the painting off the wall while screaming, “This is evil.” The painting depicts two Tahitian women partially nude that was painted by Gauguin in 1899.

It is clear that the human nude brings out all sorts of primitive and learned feelings.

Lucas the Elder Cranach was a part of the Northern Renaissance Movement and he painted religious leaders and several paintings of Venus. This VENUS was painted in Germany in 1532. There is nothing hidden here and she comes across today as she must have five hundred years ago: sexy, erotic and seductive. Maybe this was the first nude to hide behind a see through fabric? (See Marilyn Monroe later.)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had on display in 2012, NAKED BEFORE THE CAMERA - an exhibition of about 70 photographic nudes from their collections. Many are academic studies of the 1800s, but there are also pinups, erotica, forensic reports and ethnographic studies. During the late 1800s, French painters used photographs of their models to aid in recording poses. There was also a mix of more modern nudes by Weston, Mapplethorpe and Brandt.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Musee d’Orsay in Paris joined forces to create DEGAS AND THE NUDE in 2012. The curators chose 140 sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings and pastels to show Degas’ treatments of mostly nude females. In fact, Degas seemed to enjoy views of naked women that were unaware of his peeking, as they bathed or combed their hair during the period 1850 to 1890.

At the Museum of Modern Art in New York a major Cindy Sherman retrospective was in place in 2012. Sherman works as her own model representing contemporary and historical identities – several are of her nude or almost nude representing a sex doll, Botticelli, center fold model, etc. Today, Cindy Sherman is considered one of the most influential contemporary artists with her photographs often selling for more than $1 million.

Marilyn Monroe participated in only a few nude photography shoots including the “Red Velvet” Calendar by Tom Kelley and in Playboy’s centerfold. This one by Bert Stern with the see-through fabric is among the “Last Sitting” series shot at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles in 1962. Monroe posed for Stern while drinking champagne and listening to The Everly Brothers. A few months after these were shot, Monroe was found dead from a drug overdose. Thus, there are several exhibitions around the world in August 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of her death.

At the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in the spring of 2012 was the first comprehensive survey of Francesca Woodman’s photography. Woodman was born in 1958 into an artistic family and became creative with her camera at the age of 13. She studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design and upon graduation moved to New York City where she experimented with videos, writing, fashion and nude photographs of herself. Unfortunately, at the age of 22 Woodman had committed suicide.

MEL RAMOS: 50 YEARS OF SUPERHEROES, NUDES AND OTHER POP DELIGHTS is the name of this major survey of this internationally collected artist. The summer 2012 exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California features 70 paintings, drawings and sculptures of Ramos’ art including many of his sexy paintings of nude women. Over the years, Ramos’ nudes often hung in international exhibitions alongside such other Pop Artists as Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol.

In light of the above exhibitions, these Photographs of Kaitlyn are comfortably in context. By the way, most of these Photographs were taken in New York State. In 1992, New York State allowed for women to be bare breasted in public. In 2012, is the naked female a prop? Does she represent sexual desire, fantasy or vulnerability? You decide.

La Brill Gallery dans le Massachusetts annonce sa deuxième exposition sur le thème « Nude and Naked ». Elle se déroulera de juillet à septembre 2012. Cinq photographes exposeront leurs travaux de nus féminins. Donna Feldman Lasky, Dave Foss, Dmitri Belyi, Jason Tamvakis et Steve Azzara. Tous ont utilisé le même modèle, Kaitlyn, chacun a utilisé son style. D’où le nom de l’exposition : « Kaitlyn 5×5 » (cinq photographes, cinq styles). Ce modèle possède un tatouage représentant des croissants de Lune dans le bas du dos, ce qui fait sa particularité.

Un sixième photographe, Dave Gordon a réalisé une prise de vue de Kaitlyn en action, à la façon d’Eadweard Muybridge.

Toutes les œuvres présentées sont à vendre.

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Thursday September 6, 2012

NORTH ADAMS -- If my vote counts, I give it to North Adams as the county’s crowning destination for non-institutional art spaces. And I’m not talking about those ephemeral attractions spawned by DownStreet Art, although they do add a seasonal luster. This review casts a quick glance at some of the top perennial sites dotting this city.

Nestled in the Eclipse Mill, the Brill Gallery triennially offers a show on the nude, and the current manifestation is "Kaitlyn 5x5." Five photographers, one female and four males, each present five nude images of Kaitlyn, a smoking model -- seriously. The exhibit is intended for selective viewers...keep reading...

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