After countless loops around the puzzling galleries of the Museum of Modern Art, a pattern began to emerge. The emphasis of human beauty in its truest form seemed to be often represented through nudity. A concept which often causes a few perverse snickers, nudity is in fact a reflection of human beauty in its deepest medium. The human body, deprived of all artificial enhancements and distractions is a template for many artists and its perception often twists into different views. Through the reading previously assigned by John Berger and Sylva Barnett, the idea of replication being a depreciating activity became a constant warning. In an attempt to not replicate, I chose the works of two different artists viewing a similar, if not identical, idea: nudity.
Both artists are world-renown and praised by even the most passionate art critics and are subject to many in-depth analyses of their works, these two masterpieces being part of such group. The first artist is known under the name Henri Rousseau. The French Post-Impressionist painter brushed a canvas known to everybody as The Dream (1910). This expansive image features two persons, perhaps both women, and uses their distinctions to create an obvious theme of contrast throughout the work. A surely unique form of art, The Dream is an interpretation of all types of beauties, both hidden and exposed. The woman in the immediate vicinity, with her cascading long hair, supple bosom, and clean curves poses an obvious comparison to the more hidden being standing in the back. This human is of questionable gender, although the skirt will imply the feminine characteristics of a woman.Her hair is puffed and short, her bosom is covered by a wind instrument and her curves are masked by the vibrant colors of her skirt. Rousseau in his depiction of these two women molded a comparison and appreciation for both aspects of femininity: from the obvious sensual attraction to the appeal of talents and skill (as the instrument and skirt infer). Through Sylva Barnett’s advice on artistic texts, I sat on the bench before this masterpiece and just observed. The countless details which will be hard to include in one concise analysis made the work even more admirable and less likely to be subject to replication. The Dream, appropriately named, advertises the idea of infinite details that, like in a dream, can be forgotten once absent.
As a companion to Rousseau’s masterpiece, I chose a different approach to nudity showcased in a gallery only a few steps away from The Dream. This canvas by Pablo Picasso is titled Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). A work advertising the presence of five nude women, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon approaches beauty in a less singular way, but rather in a collection of different perceptions of a woman’s body. All subjects of the painting are nude and their features are jagged in nature. The absence of any delicacy removes the typical appreciation of a beautiful human body and focuses audiences on the facial features and the rough curvatures of those seemingly voluptuous ladies. The presence of such distinct pattern, the one featuring five naked women, aids the viewer in identifying other details. Unlike Rousseau’s painting, Picasso’s depiction makes it easy for all to spot any other small additions to art, in this case the centerpiece consisting of a variety of plainly colored fruits. In this work, John Berger’s scorn at replication becomes a true message. These five women had all reasons to look alike and to be portrayed in such manner, but through Picasso’s careful attention to originality, these possibly alike ladies turned into five completely different nude entities. The ability to make each woman stand out is not only a praise to a deserving painter, but an acknowledgement to the concept that these very women, in fact, were thoroughly different, not just in appearance but in essence as well.
