Voice of London

Modern art: subjective, innovative and easily accessible through our phone screens. The social media realm opens up opportunities for artists to become successful and for individuals to become artists. So let’s talk about one of the most creative and empowering forms of self-love through our art; the nude kind. 

Life drawn art has been a checkpoint for artists since prehistoric times, before becoming illegal until it was made legal again in the 19th century. It’s interpreted as the embodiment of both beauty and the forbidden, and has become a special way for individuals to express their love and acceptance for their bodies in a time where it was needed the most.

Today, it’s done uniquely and digitally via softwares such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, traditionally by hand (although people are discovering rather unusual materials to do this with), and has even evolved its way into AI art. With this many opportunities to choose our art from, it’s no surprise we only want to be able to interpret different medias and concepts in refreshing depth.

What is especially interesting to the Voice of London, is how the discussion and portrayal of nude in art has evolved with generation, with TikTok trends that have surfaced where people turn their own raunchy pics into AI. But since we can only view the physical created art from the outside – without really understanding someones soulful creative process to the work – how much do we really know about the impact that life drawing has in modern society?

Whilst running a life drawing society with her friends from university, 21 year old artist from UCA, Madi De Laszlo, fell into the spotlight as a life model herself.

“Nude modelling is honest, there’s nothing to hide anything, it’s just all out there.”

Although claiming it’s more of a hobby than a life-long ambition, Laszlo discusses how she became intrigued and invested by the idea of nude art whilst she was studying the female form for her Fine Art course.

“They don’t really understand why we’re doing it… because we’re a Fine Art course.”

She continues as she expresses the desire for better facilities to be built and maintained for the artists and models, so that they don’t have to walk “distances in the building in their slippers and a robe”.

When asked whether herself or fellow artists receive any harsh judgment, she states that it’s “only ever men that judge the classes, never women”, and that it’s always people from different courses that may be studying something less creative.

She talks about the couple of occasions where people will come to the open class, to only produce two small effortless drawings for the entirety of 10 poses in the span of an hour and a half. When asked whether she feels these people are taking advantage of the class, she claims that it’s “not taking advantage of the model per se, but it’s taking advantage of the resources”, as you receive free supplies and extra credit for attending these open classes.

“People see their bodies different to what they are” she diverges, because none of the drawings are the same and everybody has their own individuality engraved into the same subject.

Laszlo finishes by stating that she hopes the form of nude art comes out as more “honest, freeing and less demanding” in the future.

So there’s an insight to the art behind the eye of the nude artist/model. With living, flesh covered artists creating art piece after art piece that is completely different to their peers, is it exciting or scary to see what AI can come up with when merging itself with this subject?

Regardless, the fact that conversations and trends surrounding nude art/life modelling are happening, means that we’re one step closer to defeating toxic representations and taboo around the female body. We’re reachin a point where we can diminish the male gaze, shatter the glass ceiling and hopefully find and continuing these more appealing ways to empower women all over the world, to love their body in all its natural glory.

What do you think of AI-created art? Let us know on Twitter at @VoiceOfLondon.

Words: Charissa Halsey | Subbing: Argia Hernandez | Featured Image: Photo by adrianna geo on Unsplash