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Lot Essay
‘I exploit what’s dangerous and what scares me about myself’ (Lisa Yuskavage)
Painted in 2000, Ethnic Nude exemplifies Lisa Yuskavage’s deliberately provocative practice. Known for her subversive female nudes, the artist combines bold exhibitionism with poignant psychological introspection, frequently casting the viewer as voyeur. As a teenager growing up in a conservative Catholic neighbourhood, Yuskavage and her friends were shocked and enthralled to discover the men’s magazine Penthouse. Her passion for life drawing classes at art school, as well as a period working in a health club called ‘Body Beautiful’, gave rise to a fascination with the way in which we experience our bodies being seen. Around the time of the present painting, Yuskavage began to re-engage with the magazine, using live models to interrogate the images she had encountered in her youth. Operating on a purposefully intimate scale, she swathes her subjects in Old Masterly chiaroscuro, aping the lighting of the original photographs.
The results address not only art-historical representations of the female nude, but also the commercialisation of women’s bodies in popular culture. The present work is inspired by Yuskavage’s appreciation of Corot’s late nude portraits. Embracing a highly original approach to figure painting, Yuskavage’s works challenge conventional understandings of genre and viewership.
Painted in 2000, Ethnic Nude exemplifies Lisa Yuskavage’s deliberately provocative practice. Known for her subversive female nudes, the artist combines bold exhibitionism with poignant psychological introspection, frequently casting the viewer as voyeur. As a teenager growing up in a conservative Catholic neighbourhood, Yuskavage and her friends were shocked and enthralled to discover the men’s magazine Penthouse. Her passion for life drawing classes at art school, as well as a period working in a health club called ‘Body Beautiful’, gave rise to a fascination with the way in which we experience our bodies being seen. Around the time of the present painting, Yuskavage began to re-engage with the magazine, using live models to interrogate the images she had encountered in her youth. Operating on a purposefully intimate scale, she swathes her subjects in Old Masterly chiaroscuro, aping the lighting of the original photographs.
The results address not only art-historical representations of the female nude, but also the commercialisation of women’s bodies in popular culture. The present work is inspired by Yuskavage’s appreciation of Corot’s late nude portraits. Embracing a highly original approach to figure painting, Yuskavage’s works challenge conventional understandings of genre and viewership.