My friends and family often ask me why so many artists paint (as they say) “naked people.” Some think nudity is just pornography, while others just think it’s outdated in the art world. Most artists will tell you something along the lines of “we don’t see them ‘naked’, we only see beauty”. Although this may be true, it does not answer our question. As a classically trained artist, I have a theory about why people make art using the nude. I think the first step to understanding the nude in art is to understand why people did it in the past and why they continue to do it.

There are three basic categories of nudity, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive (sometimes they overlap):

The Ideal Nude: Originating from the Greeks, the ideal nude is really just a concept, the basis of which was most clearly explained by Plato. He affirmed that within all things there is a universal and divine “form” that defines them. For example: If you look at 100 trees, each individual tree will look different, but they are all similar enough to be categorized as trees. What is the underlying likeness or quality of the tree that makes it a tree? This thing, this equality, Plato called form. Greek artists took this idea and tried to find the ideal shape of the human body. They used shapes on the human body, just like a musician would use musical notes to form a chord. The idea was to create harmony through the repetition and variation of certain visual elements of the body. Excellent examples of this are, of course, classical Greek and Roman sculpture, Leonardo da Vinci (who could also be mentioned in all of these categories for different works), Donatello, Raphael, and the 19th century neoclassicals.

The Observed Nude: Originated in Fayum portraits of ancient Greece in a painting technique called encaustic, which uses wax as the pigment medium rather than oil or water. The main purpose of this originated from portraiture and was about trying to capture the particular personality and appearance of the individual. Great examples of this can be found in the paintings of Rembrandt, John Singer Sargent, and ancient Roman portrait busts.

The Expressive Nude: This form is intended to do exactly what its name implies. The nude is used here as the artist’s main vehicle of expression, generally for emotional purposes and, in the case of the Renaissance, devotional. Great examples would be the work of Michelangelo (which could also be classified as ideal nude) and most of the artists of the modern period: Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Kathe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch and Paul Gauguin etc.

I’d like to rephrase our original question for the sake of brevity and be more specific. “Why is by far the most recurring theme in all of art history the human face and body?” Modern scientific research also gives us a clue to the reasons behind our question. The human face and the human body are psychologically stimulating to the mind. Our brains are actually wired to recognize the human form. Take, for example, a chimpanzee. If you look at three different chimpanzees for 5 seconds, would you be able to tell them apart as individuals? Now if you stare at three human faces for 5 seconds, I bet your success rate will be much higher. But a chimpanzee can recognize and differentiate between other chimpanzees much more easily, just as you can recognize a human face much more easily.

You could say, okay, I understand why we look at faces, that makes sense, but why naked? Well, there are multiple reasons. First (and least important to me) is the tradition. There is a long tradition before even the Egyptians of recreating the human body. Therefore, as a method of teaching art, there are many people who have done it before, so many excellent techniques and examples have been developed for art training that are also applied to other forms of art. Second, it’s a test of skill. If one can make a believable representation of something we are so familiar with, then everything else is a piece of cake. If I paint a chimpanzee, you would be less critical of whether or not it looks real than a human face, simply because most of us don’t see chimpanzees every day for our entire lives. Some artists get caught up in this challenge for perfection and are never satisfied with their degree of skill (I know I never am) and continue to search for impossible perfection even though most people don’t see the minor flaws in the artist’s work. -The following passage includes much of my opinion on the subject and is not intended to impose my views on anyone, but simply to share another point of view.

Third, (and most important to me) the nude, when I choose to paint it, represents more than just observation. My works are intended to evoke complex emotions or thoughts in the viewer and are not meant to be decorative, although beauty is important to me. Since nudity is not often seen in normal everyday settings, it implies that there is something else to the performance. It makes the piece more intimate. For me, art is about conveying the complexity of life; their happiness and their sadness. If I paint a nude with some degree of implicit sexuality, it is to communicate the dual nature of every human being. All of us, from the most pious, to the lowest, from the highest ideals of compassion and love, to fear and jealousy; we are all torn between what we are and what we want to be. We all have some desire to do or see something bigger than what’s in front of us, and we all struggle with the desire for immediate pleasure. It is this tension between our animal and divine sides that I am trying to evoke; and in doing so, perhaps to help myself and others to understand a little more about the human being.