naked in the acropolis museum 20x16” stage 3
3:18 PM: naked in the acropolis museum stage 3, 3pm. i added a third figure. in the photo i shot, it’s a man, but i like it better as a woman. i’m kinda cooked for the day, so i’m stopping here.
it reads well from a distance, and those light blues set off the flesh tones beautifully.
although the composition is more filled in than in the recent paintings in this s eries, it retains that air of mystery i love, mostly based here on the relationship of the naked figures. is the couple enjoying the view of ancient sculpture, or the woman directly in front of them?
1:53 PM: i did a bit more work on naked in the acropolis, filling in the formerly clothed body of the man standing next to the woman on the left, and putting the shadows under their feet, which have a unique quality because of the glass floor.
honestly, i don’t think i’ve had this much pleasure making a painting in a long time. if you strip away (no pun intended) all the negative and wierd associations we have with the human body devoid of coverings, you are left with awe and wonder. we are the only animals on the planet who feel the need to cover our nakedness. granted, i’m coming to this realization a little late in the game; but hey….
i’m going to continue working although, as with the previous paintings in this series, i’m leaning in the direction of leaving some area with just the drawing. for one thing, it emphasizes the point i’ve been trying to make: that this is not a painting of a naked couple in the museum. it’s simply a painting. marks on a surface.
3/19/21 Naked in the Acropolis Museum stage 2
naked in the acropolis museum 20x16” stage 1
12:51 PM: not sure of what i was going to do today, i spied a 20x16” canvas that had been recently painted over with a warm ochre tone, leaving a few spots of the underpainting to show through, as i am fond of doing.
i began making a drawing of a couple; the same couple that appears in 2021 creek oil 6, perusing the art in the acrolopis museum, athens. half way through, i was overcome with the desire to paint the couple without their clothes, in keeping with all the naked ancient marble figures they were surrounded by. i’m about 25% into it and, as i now gaze at it, i’m a bit shocked. naked figures in a museum? our attitudes towards nudity have changed since ancient greece. we expect nude figures at a nudist beach, not in a museum. at the same time, i find this image attractive. unencumbered by shirts, bras, belts, pants, these people are more likely to enjoy the richness of the ancient greek culture they’re observing.
i’ll continue working; let’s see where this takes me. more images as the afternoon progresses.
1:24 PM: i did a little research on the topic, and here’s something interesting i found:
Marina Abramović & Ulay
A Living Door of the Museum
“If there were no artists, there would be no museums, so we are living doors.”
Standing naked in the main entrance of a museum, facing each other while the audience passes sideways through the small space. Legendary performance artists Marina Abramović and Ulay