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'Masculine/Masculine' Explores Male Nude Throughout Art History And We Couldn't Be Happier (NSFW)

HUFFINGTON POST
"L'Ecole de Platon" (The School of Plato) by Belgian artist Jean Deville . (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)
FRANCE---On this most glorious of seasons, one museum is going where not so many have gone before, exploring artistic depictions of the nude throughout time. The male nude, that is. The Musee D'Orsay's highly anticipated "Masculine/Masculine" features male-centric artworks spanning from the 18th century to present day. The high brow peep show is divided thematically into depictions of religion, mythology, athleticism, homosexuality, and shifting notions of manliness. The exhibition was in part inspired by Leopold Museum "Nude Men" exhibition in Vienna last year (See below). [link]

"Vive la France" by French artists Pierre et Gilles. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)
"Eminem: about to blow" by US artist David LaChapelle. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)

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Ernest Disney-Britton said…
Jean Delville (1867-1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, writer, and "occultist", so he'd not what one would consider a traditional Religious Artists but some might consider "occultism" a religion (I'm not sure". According to Wiki, his painting with the Christ-like figure "...was greeted with great enthusiasm when it went on display in Brussels in 1898. Its colours are predominantly cool, emphasizing blues, greens and tans, with touches of purple. Plato, whose philosophy Delville greatly admired, sits in the centre of a beautiful but artificial classical landscape, disseminating wisdom to a group of twelve male pupils. He is bearded and Christ-like, and this association is not a coincidence. Delville’s aim was to represent the disciples as androgynous. According to Plato, and later esoteric systems such as Theosophy, primordial humans had once been hermaphrodites. In Delville’s day, many people believed that the more spiritual human types were already beginning to return to that state. The androgyny of Plato’s disciples is thus a sign of their purity and evolution towards divinity." This idea of androgyny as a state of purity, such as Plato's "The Third Sex" is consistent with early Native American conceptions too. It's an amazing work, and while the rest of the show seems more bent on shock value, there is a lesson about spirituality in "The School of Plato." Yes, I'd love the poster.
Fri Sep 27, 09:01:00 AM EDT
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