As a subject in art, the body has been used to tell stories or admired as an object of beauty. Michelangelo’s David is a masterful carving of a nude young man whose story we know from the Hebrew Bible. The sculptor used scientific observation to carve it with proportions that would seem correct when viewed from below—as its placement was originally intended.
The artists in Re-presenting the Nude III rely both on precedent and innovation to depict the body. In media from glass to graphite, they have created images to please us, to challenge us and, perhaps, to titillate us.
John O'Hern
