April 22, 2023

"This show unites blue-chip buttocks by the likes of Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, John Currin and Cecily Brown; dorsal drawings and pastels by Degas, Klimt and Schiele..."

"The bottoms on display are male and female, nude and clothed, seen from a forensic distance or in fetishistic close-up, but rarely lascivious. All together the show is well-bred and understated...."

Paul Cadmus, whose retrograde male nudes are enjoying an unmerited revival in attention, appears here with yet more anemic drawings of standing and reclining musclemen, none more consequential than the gents on a Calvin Klein underwear box. (For what it’s worth, the gay male artists in this show all come out looking second-rate, with none of the perverse intelligence of Degas, Schiele and the other straight bros. Did Michelangelo die for this?)....
In [Félix Vallotton's] 'Étude de Fesses'... the right cheek droops inches below the left, which is squared off where the sitzfleisch meets the thigh. The left hip arcs grandly, while the right one nearly disappears into a vertical line. Gentle shadowing picks out small passages of cellulite, and cool, clean vertical brushwork gives his oils the appearance of pastel...."
That's at The New York Times, where they prod me to partake of additional ass-related material like this:

7 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

Pieces like this do nothing to help convince me we're not living in Idiocracy the movie.

Stuff like this is why aliens won't talk to us, I'm sure of it.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

That's a perfect subject for the NYT. What better way to start the day than reading about butts? The Babylon Bee couldn't have done that any better.

Earnest Prole said...

All I know is that within my lifetime an ass famine has become an ass feast, proof at minimum that things can change for the better, and quite possibly that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

RNB said...

"The number 1 movie in America was called 'Ass.' And that's all it was for ninety minutes. It won eight Oscars that year. Including best screenplay."

n.n said...

Transgenders find common cause with trans/socialites in union with feminists/masculinists under the ethical religion of Progressive Liberal sects.

Caroline said...

Meanwhile, in Paris, the Louvre is touting “des cheveux et des poiles” show, à fascinating roundup of classical paintings grouped around hairstyles and chest hair. Catering to the lower nature animal we have become.

mikee said...

If you look from the back at the famous Michaelangelo statue of David, you can see not only the sling across his spine and the stone in the pouch in his right hand, but also that he's a little clenched in the glutes, perhaps in nervous anticipation of the contest to come. Of such detail is great art made. The Idiocracy clip from "Ass," on the other hand, wasn't that compelling.

Did the actor who played that role get a screen credit? Do we know who modeled for David?