Modeling Life: Art Models Speak about Nudity, Sexuality, and the Creative Process

by Sarah R. Phillips

A fascinating consideration of the work of life models and the models’ own perspectives on their craft.This is a book about life modeling. Unlike the painter whose name appears beside his finished portrait, the life model, posing nude, perhaps for months, goes unacknowledged. Standing at a unique juncture—between nude and naked, between high and low culture, between art and pornography—the life model is admired in a finished sculpture, but scorned for her or his posing. Making use of extensive interviews with both male and female models and quoting them frequently, Sarah R. Phillips gives a voice to life models. She explores the meaning that life models give to themselves and to their work and seeks to understand the lived experience of life models as they practice their profession. Throughout history, people have romanticized life models in an aura of bohemian eroticism, or condemned them as strippers or sex workers. Modeling Life reveals how life models get into the business, managing sexuality in the studio, what it means to be a “muse,” and why their work is important.Sarah R. Phillips is Associate Professor of Sociology at Pacific University.

Genres: Art, Sexuality

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 5, 2006

Reviews

[Zodiac Mindwarp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a bit dated now as the author’s research was conducted almost 30 years ago. The models interviewed were all from the Pacific Northwest so time and location plays a big part in the views expressed. The book itself begins with quite an academic history of the relationship of the life model to art.

The books earns 4 stars, however, simply because it covers a subject that, even to this day, there is very little information about and the interviews with the models are interesting. Without a better resource available, this ends up being a worthwhile read for anyone curious about figure modeling.

[Jesse Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who hires a lot of models for figure drawing, I thought this gave invaluable insight into their thoughts and the modeling process. I was surprised at how rich a topic it is for examination.

The writing was more academic than I usually like, but the frequent quotes from models broke it up well.

The only suggestion is that it could use an updated edition. It says it was first published in 2006 but the text seems more like 1996.

[Andre Hermanto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good:
* Very good coverage on everything about life modelling from the pay to handling pain.

Bad:
* I'm still quite unsure if life modelling is an "acceptable" work. It seems that some of the interviewed models are doing mental gymnastics to justify their work.

[Alexander Ochotorena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Having done some modeling myself it was interesting to see how the models felt about their part in the creative process.