| Updated at least 26½ times a day |
| CONTACT THE LIZARD |
| OUR OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY |
Lizard Poll
|
| Check out our blog the monitor |
| Sign me up to receive the free weekly |
home
articles
editorials
bites
blog
gossip
love
letters
retractions
vacancies
competitions
about us
philosophy
contact
articles
editorials
bites
blog
gossip
love
letters
retractions
vacancies
competitions
about us
philosophy
contact
| _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
Nude Today
with Dr. William A. Lipsmacker
Saturday, December 8, 2007
This week: Female Nude by Modligiani
with Dr. William A. Lipsmacker
Saturday, December 8, 2007
This week: Female Nude by Modligiani
When I slip into the Courtauld to
contemplate their magnificent Modigliani,
known only as Female Nude [circa 1916],
“Alex Hargreaves” is the title I silently
append.
She was a girl in my English class. Not the
greatest beauty – like the artist’s model for
this painting, her nose was perhaps a trifle
sharp. Her face, to the unbiased observer,
was no doubt similarly equine, without the
contemplate their magnificent Modigliani,
known only as Female Nude [circa 1916],
“Alex Hargreaves” is the title I silently
append.
She was a girl in my English class. Not the
greatest beauty – like the artist’s model for
this painting, her nose was perhaps a trifle
sharp. Her face, to the unbiased observer,
was no doubt similarly equine, without the
excuse that she did it for artistic effect. Her behind, from my
surreptitious observation of netball practice, was certainly chunky,
just as this slim-waisted beauty’s appears to be.
And yet for me Alex H will always remain the gold standard in
sensuality. She could compose her limbs into a certain luxuriant
attitude of boredom that took even our teacher’s mind off the
scansion of a line of the Prelude and left him, like the rest of us,
scanning the lines of Miss Hargreaves, the book artfully positioned
over his lap.
In this nude, Modigliani has captured that same dreamy sensuality I
first observed with one hand on my Wordsworth.
Yet the artist has also outperformed nature in two crucial ways:
First, the beauty of this painting is eternal: sweet Alex H will
always, alas, be the same age as me. She probably currently lives in
Swindon, works as a middle manager and has a husband who
daren’t tell her she could stand to lose three stone. Sic transit
gloria Form 3B.
Second, and no less important, the artist lets me see that glory in
full – Alex only ever gave me edited glimpses, however much
homework I did for her.
Why do I muddle together my personal erotic awakening with
comments on this great painting? Because it is an erotic
awakening, a deceptively casual invitation to seduction. Like all
Modigliani’s grand nudes, it is made to heat male blood and send it
a long way south of our brains—when the series was first
exhibited, the police actually turned up and tried to close the gallery
on the grounds of public decency. Passers-by gathered to salivate
on the windows, and not without cause.
But I also talk in personal terms because we need reminding that
this painting is personal—for all the formalism of the elongated
features and the influence of African designs, we are invited to
admire a real, a hyper-real woman and our aching desire to rip off
her uniform behind the bike sheds.
Female Nude is let down only by the clinical anonymity of its given
name. Alex Hargreaves is a much better title. It reminds us what
we’re looking at, and how lucky we are whenever beauty reveals
itself to us.
Sometimes the language of criticism gets in the way. The proper
way to appreciate this painting is to swallow hard and resist the
temptation to lick the canvas. Then go and find someone to
discuss it with at length—horizontally.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2007
LAST WEEK: The Little Mermaid of Copenhagen
surreptitious observation of netball practice, was certainly chunky,
just as this slim-waisted beauty’s appears to be.
And yet for me Alex H will always remain the gold standard in
sensuality. She could compose her limbs into a certain luxuriant
attitude of boredom that took even our teacher’s mind off the
scansion of a line of the Prelude and left him, like the rest of us,
scanning the lines of Miss Hargreaves, the book artfully positioned
over his lap.
In this nude, Modigliani has captured that same dreamy sensuality I
first observed with one hand on my Wordsworth.
Yet the artist has also outperformed nature in two crucial ways:
First, the beauty of this painting is eternal: sweet Alex H will
always, alas, be the same age as me. She probably currently lives in
Swindon, works as a middle manager and has a husband who
daren’t tell her she could stand to lose three stone. Sic transit
gloria Form 3B.
Second, and no less important, the artist lets me see that glory in
full – Alex only ever gave me edited glimpses, however much
homework I did for her.
Why do I muddle together my personal erotic awakening with
comments on this great painting? Because it is an erotic
awakening, a deceptively casual invitation to seduction. Like all
Modigliani’s grand nudes, it is made to heat male blood and send it
a long way south of our brains—when the series was first
exhibited, the police actually turned up and tried to close the gallery
on the grounds of public decency. Passers-by gathered to salivate
on the windows, and not without cause.
But I also talk in personal terms because we need reminding that
this painting is personal—for all the formalism of the elongated
features and the influence of African designs, we are invited to
admire a real, a hyper-real woman and our aching desire to rip off
her uniform behind the bike sheds.
Female Nude is let down only by the clinical anonymity of its given
name. Alex Hargreaves is a much better title. It reminds us what
we’re looking at, and how lucky we are whenever beauty reveals
itself to us.
Sometimes the language of criticism gets in the way. The proper
way to appreciate this painting is to swallow hard and resist the
temptation to lick the canvas. Then go and find someone to
discuss it with at length—horizontally.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2007
LAST WEEK: The Little Mermaid of Copenhagen