Product Description

As images of men's bodies have proliferated in pop culture and advertising during the past decade, many artists and photographers have taken up the male nude as a primary subject. Recent work has sparked controversy as well as praise for its shocking frankness, and the line between art and pornography has become increasingly difficult to define. New digital technologies have brought about new ways of representing the body, and we are now faced with a multiplicity of eroticisms, previously unexplored channels of desire, and more inclusive and varied body ideals.

Male Nudes Now offers an essential guide through this new territory with more than 240 fresh and provocative images. Featuring contemporary work, mostly unpublished, this important sourcebook showcases a dynamic mix of visionaries, from established masters to breakthrough newcomers.

Feature Artists Include

Lyle Ashton Harris
Marc Baptiste
Clive Barker
Cecily Brown
Chuck Close
John Dugdale
Todd Eberle
Eric Fischl
Nan Goldin
Greg Gorman
David Hockney
Patrick McMullan
Duane Michals
Pierre et Gilles
Jack Pierson
Rankin
Terry Richardson
Michael Roberts
Stewart Shining
Wolfgang Tillmans
George Tooker
Ellen von Unwerth

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #495064 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-03
• Released on: 2001-11-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780789306357
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Leddick's book is remarkable on two fronts...across the board, the visual comparisons are as fascinating as the lives lived."--New Orleans Times-Picayune

"This book combines stories and photographs of the men who did it first. It's like a buried treasure one only finds 20,000 leagues under the sea."--Bruce Weber
-- Review

About the Author
A leading expert in male nude photography, David Leddick is the author of several award-winning anthologies on the subject. He also has written the novels My Worst Date, The Sex Squad, and Never Eat In, as well as Intimate Companions, a biographical study of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, and Lincoln Kirstein. Leddick lives in Paris and Miami Beach.

Customer Reviews

GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS
The photographs and reproductions of drawings and paintings and sculture in David Leddick's book are so clear, clean and produced so beautifully that it makes this important, if paperbound, volume worth the high price.

Leddick has cleverly divided the book into seven different categories: artists who are experimentalists, those who are neo-classicists, eroticists, fantasists, sensualists, realists and romanticists. The categories contain images by famous artists: David Hockney, John Dugdale, Christopher Makos, Nan Goldin, Duane Michaels, et al. mixed with those of artists who are not so well known, my personal favorites being David Halliday and Greg Bruce.

Leddick's opening essay (which could very easily be much longer and more detailed) explains what artists in the past had to put up with if their art contained even a hint of male eroticism. Times have obviously changed and this book is proof of that fact.

My one criticism, and it is a major one, is that the author insists on "gilding the lily." All of his examples speak best by being viewed. Besides biographical material which is to my mind vital, Leddick's extraneous editorial comments often border on the precious and are always unnecessary i.e. "Jack Slomovits photographs men who seem to be lost in their own erotic fantasy world...," "It's hard to imagine how he (Stewart Shining)finds time for his artistic pursuits between meetings with fashion editors, shoots in Florida and bookings in his studio...," "Rankin is very much a rebel with a cause...."
My advice: Look at the countless, first rate examples in the book and then contact the artists or their representatives as listed in the index to learn more about them.

A thoroughly entertaining, valuable addition
David Leddick has moved from his prodigious gifts as a photographer to establish himself rather swiftly in the realm of art historian/commentator. In "Male Nude Now" Leddick opens this well designed book with a terse essay and then lets the artists speak for themselves. The subject: The growing acceptance and interest in the male nude as depicted by photographers, draughtsmen, painters and sculptors in the 21st century. In placing his subject approach in chapters/divisions such as Experimentalists, Fantasists, Neoclassicists, Sensualists etc he attempts to emphasize various approaches to the male nude. It works. Though the dividing lines are vague, they do set up a dialogue for the viewer. One of the most gratifying aspects of this book is Leddick's finely researched coverage of artists who appreciate and celebrate the male nude. There are the well known artists such as Don Bachardy, Duane Michaels, Tom Bianchi, Michael Leonard, Chuck Close, David Hockney, et al - all represented by fresh works not visible in other books. But it is his inclusion of such fine young talents as Wes Hempel, John Sonsini, Graydon Parrish, Wolfgang Tillmans etc that make this a voyage of discovery. The reproductions are true, divided bewteen richly colored images and all phases of Black and White photographs. And in keeping with the documentary style, he includes photos and bios of each of the artists he has selected.
This is a fine addition to the literature of art, to the dialogue of the ongoing struggle of presenting the nude male frontally that faces all artists (and viewers), and to the sophisticated art books that grace the libraries and coffee tables of sensitive people. Bravo!

This Book Is Addictive!
Mr. Leddick has outdone himself on this one. With over 100 artists represented, this is one of the most inclusive collections of male nudes I have seen. There are photographers, painters and sculptors represented. The only requirement seems to be that the artist be living. Several of those represented are well-known, Greg Gorman, George Dureau, Michael Leonard, Tom Bianchi, Christopher Makos, Arthur Tress, Nan Goldein, John Dugdale, Chuck Close, David Hockney and Don Barchardy, to name a few. But most of the artists are unknown-- at least to me. There is literally every kind of nude male you can imagine here and some you probably didn't. Mr. Leddick arranges the art in what seems a rather arbitrary grouping to me: experimentalists, neoclassicists, eroticists, fantasists, sensualists, realists and romanticists. He could just as easily have grouped the artists alphabetically, for my money.

There are a couple of dozen previously unknown artists I was crazy about. I particularly liked Steve Underhill, Jack Balas and Terry Gaskins. (There is a brief paragraph about each artist with a small photo included with each work of art; then there are addresses for the artists printed as well.)I would love to have seen all the people who got culled, or at least those who deserve honorable mention.

My only complaint about this beautiful book is that it is printed in a paperback edition only. You certainly want this one to last.