The nude

Nude paintings&sbquo nude statues and nude images. In other words&sbquo the term represents&sbquo in general&sbquo the human body in a naked state or expressions in paintings or sculptures of gods and demons in human forms&sbquo and includes not only totally naked bodies but also partially covered ones. Originally&sbquo the nude's primary meaning was to symbolize the vital power of the human being or its subject&sbquo but its expression later acquired symbolic meaning by directly representing emotion&sbquo personality&sbquo physical expression and gesture. It even developed to express sensitive&sbquo esthetic&sbquo sensual and erotic sexual meaning through proportion&sbquo volume&sbquo mass&sbquo skin texture and skin color. From the Rococo era&sbquo in particular&sbquo the female nude has been preferred from an esthetic standpoint&sbquo and became a major artistic subject. This&sbquo however&sbquo led to the image of nude = naked female body. While the drawing and photographing of nudes are incorporated in the educational curriculum as part of artistic training&sbquo the nude has also become a sexual object and a social and political issue&sbquo as the female nude&sbquo in particular&sbquo has acquired a commercial symbolism. In light of this issue&sbquo it should be pointed out that a design-approach solution is essential for dealing with today’s gender related issues and the issue of gender identity disorder. It is time to return to the original meaning of nude and reexamine the methods of depicting such elements as human emotion&sbquo personality&sbquo physical expression and gesture as the object of expression or as a symbol of modern society.

Copyright © 2009 Kazuo KAWASAKI All rights reserved.