I was told today that we don’t have any naked models in our life drawing sessions, only nude or disrobed. An excerpt from the Guardian Article, “Not naked but nude,” reveals one take on the differences between “Naked” and “Nude”.

It was the art historian Kenneth Clark who claimed there is a difference. A naked human body is exposed, vulnerable, embarrassing, he wrote in his 1956 book The Nude. “The word ‘nude’, on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenceless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and confident body … “

I can’t really argue with an excerpt from an article that came from a book I’ve never read. I don’t have any context and I do think context is what this is really all about. Words are easily modified by context. “Bad” is good in the right context.

So what did I learn here? Don’t use the Internet to research the differences between “naked” and “nude” or you might come across a photo of a man who inflated his scrotum for a peace rally.

Here are some of my sketches from naked time:

• Sketch 17
• Sketch 18
• Sketch 19
• Sketch 20
• Sketch 20b

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Commentary, Sketches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.