Assignment 4 Part 2

I was not present for the exhibit at GOCA121 so I used this picture that I was looking at in Manitou at the Public Art Center.  John Berger says in “Ways of Seeing” that to be naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas the nude is a form of art.  A nude is not the starting point of a painting, but a way of seeing which the painting achieves.  To some degree, this is true, although the way of seeing a nude is not necessarily confined to art, there are also nude photographs, nude poses, nude gestures.  To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself.  A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.  Nakedness reveals itself.  Nudity is placed on display.  To be naked is to be without disguise.  To be on display is to have the surface of one’s own skin the hairs of one’s own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded.  The nude is condemned to never being naked.  Nudity is a form of dress.  This is a naked picture, not a nude.  She is not positioned in a seductive or sexual way.  She is faceless and is not the object of someone’s desires.  She does not have an owner like a piece of property.  She seems to me to be a dancer.  She is earthy and enjoys nature.  Or, maybe she is entwined with nature.  She may be spiritual and free from worldly baggage. She is outlined in red, kind of a fiery color.  Maybe she’s in hell on earth and the birds are trying to untangle her from the branches.  She might have been in a fire and lost all her worldly possessions.    

Berger, J. (1977). Ways of Seeing. London: The Penguin Group.