The Nude Male: A New Perspective

by Margaret Walters

The nude in art is the product of a male-oriented society. It reflects man's view of himself through the centuries - a view that does not include women.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really splendid study of the history of the male nude in art and commerce. It's largely focused on the Western tradition and is predictably Eurocentric (she starts with ancient Greece and comes up to what was--at the time of authorship--the present day (1978). The chapters can be read independently, as they can all stand as independent essays on the various cultures and periods they examine. The author is very astute, very perceptive, and her interpretations rarely seem factitious, fatuous or forced; she is actually seeing what is happening in each culture and describing it with great facility (and coruscating wit to boot!) Each chapter ends with generous reproductions of the artworks in question. I don't know if this is regarded as a classic, but it should be. I particularly like the way the author is able to abandon academic pretensions when discussing pornography, for exmaple, and use the appropriate registers of language (and sense of humor sometimes) that the subject matter really demands. The chapter on Mannerism, and the representation of the male nude in Mannerist art, is particularly stunning. There are many typos in this edition, but I suppose this was before the widespread use of computer programs to weed the majority of those out. But this was published by Penguin, so I was a bit surprised. It's charming when the author slips a particularly British locution in here and there, often a ribald expression. It is a deeply thoughtful work without any of the pretensions one has (unfortunately) come to expect from art or cultural criticism. It's really worth snagging a copy on ABE books, in hardcover or paper. You won't pay much at all and it's a fine addition to the library. Or course, the great unspoken spectre that looms over this book is A.I.D.S. She's publishing this in 1978, when the virus is certainly beginning its nefarious infiltration of the art world and all other worlds. The gates of Hell are ready to open. A sea change is about to occur in the representation of the male nude...the horrible images of Renaissance imaginings of Hell, the terrifying decay seen in German Expressionism are about to be visited on living human flesh. And art is going to go with these poor souls into Hell. I think of so many painters who moved towards images of evanescence, immateriality, disappearance when depicting the human figure in the early 80s. And this was all happening while the Iron Curtain of Reaganomics was going up everywhere, producing the most ridiculous divides this culture has probably seen since the sixties. I guess this should be read with a companion book which picks up right there and looks at how representation of the male nude instantly changed. It would be a very worthwhile work. Perhaps it already exists.

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the ferocity of the opening chapters fades by the final one, this is an excellent critique of the subject from a feminist point of view.
Book also contains the fact-check of human history: "By law, the penis must never be shown erect [in painting or photographs, in the UK]."