Highlights from [Baren] Exchange #68 (Part 3 of 4)

This the third of four posts highlighting prints from  Baren Forum's #68 Exchange. The theme was "Nudes", and the paper size was 8" x 8". The first post can be found here and the second can be found here. 

Third: nude beach humor 
Featuring Why Not? by Bridget Pilip Murphy (above) and Nudist Newbie by Therese Krupp (below.) 

Two prints in this exchange dealt with public nudity in a whimsical manner. Specifically, they both deal with the emotional charge felt in the initial moments after the subject (in both cases, a woman) has decided to enter an outdoor nudist space.

The first frames the naked torso of a perfectly proportioned venus as she enters a verdant beach setting, the grass speckled with little, cheery flowers. And though we only see her body below the shoulders, the title presumably puts us into her head. She is the one who has just removed her playful polka dot bikini in response to the sign that reads "Clothing Optional." As the title queries, indeed, with such a figure that could only draw admiring, lustful, or envious gazes, why not? 

The second print sort of does the opposite. Here we see only the subject's face, though from the title "Nudist Newbie" we can assume she is naked or about to be so. Instead of us looking at her body, we see in the mirror of her sunglasses that she is looking at other peoples' bodies, and literally biting her fingernail over her predicament.

It seems that the second print answers the question posed by the title of the first. 

Highlights from [Baren] Exchange #68 (Part 2 of 4)

This the second of four posts highlighting prints from  Baren Forum's #68 Exchange. The theme was "Nudes", and the paper size was 8" x 8". The first post can be found here. 

Second: wet feet, their backs turned  
Featuring Poolside by Lisa Toth (above) and Nude by the Water by Julio Rodriguez (below.)

Again, two prints with many similarities: a single woman, seemingly alone, her back to the viewer looking out into gently rippling waters. Inevitably many prints of nudes include water seeing as bathing and sometimes swimming are activities done naked. When I look at these prints, I cannot help but imagine how the cool, moving water feels against my own feet and legs.

The difference between these two, as with the two prints I featured yesterday, is about the relationship between the figure and her setting. The first woman sits on the edge of a pool, arms crossed, a towel or blanket behind her. She seems to have already swam and is now quietly resting. She is more still, more dry, and more in her own head. The second woman is moving. Both prints feature ripples, but in the second the ripples are a consequence of the figure's movement and thus, they encircle her. She isn't in between events, she is part of the action. 

Highlights from [Baren] Exchange #68 (Part 1 of 4)

The theme for this exchange from Baren Forum was "Nudes", and the paper size was 8" x 8". I submitted #8 from my series of male nude white line woodcuts from last year. Certain themes and similar approaches to this challenge were employed by the artists who participated in this exchange, four of which I'll highlight in my posts about this exchange.

First: the fetal position 
Featuring Heat by Theresa Martin (above) and NUDE (squared) by Preston Lawing (below.)

These were not the only two prints in this exchange that featured a curled up naked body. But I was particularly struck by the similarities and differences between these two.

Both are reductions in warm hues depicting women, their eyes closed, arms wrapped around themselves, knees pressed close together. And yet, the woman lying on the ground visibly radiates heat outward, while the woman seated on a hard floor appears to contain her warmth. The one above appears relaxed, perhaps merely curled up while sleeping. The other, upright, seems posed or contemplative. One is connected to the space she occupies, the other is detached.

Charles W. Hobson's Woman in a Bathtub

Never before has a bath felt so much like playing hopscotch.

"Liebespaar" (Lovers) by Gerhard Marcks

What else would they be doing on top of a checkered blanket, spread out on the ground under open skies and warm sun.

"We Do What We Must" A Conversation on Womanhood Engaged by Jeanine Leclaire

I recently received the honor of being invited into a group exhibition featuring the work of a diverse group of women artists. The show went up at the start of last month and continues through the end of this month. I encourage anyone in the Philadelphia area to check it out before it comes down. (Here's a link to the Roger Lapelle Galleries website with information.) And for those who cannot see the exhibition in person, here is an excellent video which documents most of the work in the show with thoughtful commentary by the filmmaker John Thornton and the show's curator Jeanine Leclaire. 

"Anna Held's Milk Bath" by John Held Jr.

Earlier this year I wrote about John Held Jr.'s wonderful book of woodcuts illustrating the "The Saga of Frankie and Johnny." Held was known most for his illustrations of flappers for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker which captured the Jazz Age.

But Held's work that moves me the most are the rough engravings from the turn of the last century - the end of the Victorian era. Here he is known for illustrating some of the darkest aspects of humanity - drunkenness, lecherous misogyny, violence - with a sort of tenderness. Held often referred to himself in his illustrations as "that old sentimentalist." It wasn't that he was promoting or glorifying such vices, but rather, that he saw the humanity within the people carrying it out.

This print is of Anna Held, a tremendously famous actor and singer in her day. Sadly, her life was cut short in 1918 when she died at the age of 46. Anna Held had been a Broadway star and regarded as a war hero for her work entertaining troops on the front lines during World War I. That she passed away while still in the midst of a thriving career must have struck the public in a powerful way. This woodcut of John Held Jr,'s was published in 1930 and was meant to capture the nostalgia people felt for a recently bygone era - a time when it was still considered risque for a woman to show her legs. Though Anna Held - a performer known for her flirtatious performances - is depicted in a bath, the banality of the scene is emphasized by practical elements such as a scrub brush and giant jugs. A relative innocence comes across in the expressions on Anna Held and and her attendant's faces, who seem cheerful yet humdrum in their occupations.

This is in contrast to most of Anna Held's promotional photographs that directly confront viewers with a come-hither gaze.

Rest in peace, both of you talented (and unrelated) Helds.