Have you ever wondered what makes the female nude so fascinating to artists? What is the significance of the female nude in modern society and in painting? In this article, I share my perspective on nude painting and why I find the censorship of sensuality in a free society problematic.
As an artist, I have always been passionate about the subject of the female nude. Even as a child, I was fascinated by numerous nude depictions, whether paintings or sculptures, in the collections of the St. Petersburg Hermitage or the Russian Museum. The depictions ranged from ancient Greek statues to works by Renaissance and Impressionist artists. For me, they were very diverse and exciting. But my everyday experiences also shaped my perception of the naked female body. As a child, I lived for a while with my parents, my grandmother, and some flatmates in a communal apartment. In the Soviet Union, it was common to go to the banya (bathhouse), as there was often no hot water in the apartment and bathroom conditions were generally not very inviting.
Source: Wikipedia
Zinaida Serebriakova's painting "Banya" powerfully conveys the feeling I experienced as a little girl in the banya. A dimly lit environment, warm, humid air, the scent of soap, and many naked, wet female bodies with skin reddened by hot steam. Today, I understand that these scenes exuded the beauty and naturalness of the female body. Women washed their hair, poured cold water over themselves from washbasins, and enjoyed this cleansing ritual in an almost pagan way. I also found my mother's body beautiful – to me, she was a redhead beauty. Later, I discovered and admired this beauty in paintings by Sandro Botticelli and Titian.
Nude painting from 2020
My first large-format paintings, which I painted in Germany, depicted full-figured female bodies. At that time, I was very fascinated by the beauty of fullness. 20 years ago, I received my first commissions for nude paintings. Men gave their wives a photoshoot with me, and I created the commissioned paintings based on the photographed motifs. To this day, I find full-figured female bodies beautiful, as they symbolize for me the abundance of nature and Mother Earth. As with the Venus of Willendorf, one of the oldest figures depicting the theme of fertility, people are fascinated by these female archetypes.
Art project "Eve's Daughters - Sense and Sensuality" for Playboy magazine
Later in my career as an artist, I repeatedly dedicated myself to the theme of the female nude. One project I realized was "Eve's Daughters - Sense and Sensuality" for Playboy magazine. For this, I immortalized all the Playmates of 2014 as modern love goddesses on my large-format canvas paintings.
It was important to me to emphasize the unique beauty of the female body and also to show the strength of the women who were confident enough to participate in the project. The photo series were beautiful and inspiring, and it was very interesting to learn the stories of the Playmates. Meanwhile, it has become more difficult for Playboy to present sensual and aesthetic photos to the public. The new attitude towards femininity has led to some stigmatization.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to present aesthetic and artistic depictions of the naked female body on the internet. While images of war and violence are readily available on social networks, sensual depictions of the female body are increasingly being banned and censored. I am not allowed to show my female nudes on TikTok at all; Facebook and Instagram severely restrict the reach and visibility of these works. News media is full of images of disasters, accidents, and other fear-inducing content. But it seems that for some people, sensuality is offensive, and thoughts of stimulating and exciting female bodies are hard to bear. How did we end up in such times?
On the other hand, some feminist movements advocate for desexualizing the female body and perceiving it in its "bare" form. The sexualization of the female body is attributed to patriarchy, and it is criticized that images of men and women are censored very differently on social networks. While shirtless male torsos are often accepted, women are discriminated against when it comes to depicting their exposed bodies. From the perspective of these movements, sexualization is the main reason for the distorted relationship with the female body.
Although some women, especially those with a feminist stance, complain about sexualized depictions of femininity, fortunately, many people still find inspiring and sensual depictions of the female body beautiful. As an artist, I often hear this and am pleased that the publicly proclaimed trend often differs greatly from people's actual perceptions. For me, the fascination with the female body is strongly linked to its natural sexual appeal. Women should not see this as a burden but as a gift to be enjoyed and appreciated. Every woman can discover and develop her own beauty.
Although it is currently trendy in the media to hide women's natural sensuality and portray them as quasi-genderless, I am confident that female nature is stronger. For me, the female body does not exist without its sexual power. I rather see a problem when women try to detach or suppress their sensuality or influence or dictate other people's perception of beauty, instead of coming to terms with themselves.
It brings me great joy to depict the sensual aspects of femininity in my artworks and in this way celebrate the fascinating power they exude. I want to invite people to discover the aesthetic beauty of female depictions in art and to explore the feelings these depictions evoke within themselves. I am happy for those who share my aesthetic sensibility, but I am also happy that some people have different ideas of femininity. For me, it is valuable not to please everyone and to grant others the right to their own ideas of beauty.
