Model (art)
An art model is a person who poses, often nude, for visual artists as part of the creative process, providing a reference for the human body in a work of art. The importance of the human figure in Western art begins with the Ancient Greeks, which was rediscovered in the Renaissance, art modelling then becoming an occupation. With few exceptions, models remained anonymous until the 19th century.
Modern nude models have most often been employees of art schools, and paid by the hour to pose. As an occupation, modeling requires the often strenuous 'physical work' of holding poses for the required length of time, the 'aesthetic work' of performing a variety of interesting poses, and the 'emotional work' of maintaining a socially ambiguous role. While the role of nude models is well-established as a necessary part of artistic practice, public nudity remains transgressive, and models may be vulnerable to stigmatization or exploitation.
Role of the model
Contemporary art models are most often paid professionals with skill and experience. Rarely employed full-time, they must be gig workers or independent contractors if modeling is to be a major source of income. Models are most frequently employed by institutions of higher learning, other art schools, or by informal groups of artists that gather to share the expense of a model. Models are also employed privately by professional artists. Although commercial motives dominate over aesthetics in illustration, its artwork commonly employs models. For example, Norman Rockwell employed his friends and neighbors as models for both his commercial and fine-art work.In the second half of the 20th century, the dominance of abstraction in the art world reduced the need for models by professional artists except for the remaining representational artists. However, drawing from life remained an important part of the training needed for a complete visual arts education at the majority of art schools. In the 21st century, art modeling has expanded from educational settings to non-traditional art spaces and sometimes bars, blurring the line between art and entertainment. With the increasing presence of sexual imagery in popular culture, effort is required to maintain the desexualized context of nude modeling in studio classes.
Training and selection
In some countries there are figure model guilds that concern themselves with the competence, conduct and reliability of their members. An example is the Register of Artists' Models in the United Kingdom. Some basic training is offered to beginners and membership is by audition – to test competence, not to discriminate on grounds of physical characteristics. RAM also acts as an important employment exchange for models and publishes the 'RAM Guidelines', which are widely referred to by models and employers. A similar organization in the United States, the Bay Area Models Guild in California, was founded in 1946 by Florence Wysinger Allen. Groups also exist in Australia and Sweden. These groups may also attempt to establish minimum rates of pay and working conditions, but only rarely have models been sufficiently organized to go on strike.Diversity of models and students
Unlike commercial modeling, modeling in an art school classroom is for the purpose of teaching students of art how to draw humans of all physical types, genders, ages, and ethnicities. The minimum age for life models in the United States is usually 18. Younger children are not good candidates for art modeling since they are not able to stay still.Gender roles and stereotypes in society are reflected in different experiences for male and female art models, and different responses when those not in the arts learn that someone is a nude model. However, both male and female models tend to keep their modeling careers distinct from their other social interactions, if for different reasons. Attitudes toward male nudity, issues of homosexuality when male artists work with male models, and some bias in favor of the female form in art may lead to less opportunity for male models. Works of art that include male nudity are much less marketable.
Figure on Diversity is an organization that seeks to diversify the field of figurative representation in art education by leading workshops for models and artists. Founded in Boston in 2018, it has since moved to Florida, but has an increasing presence online.
Working as a model
Posing nude is physically and emotionally challenging, but models find the effort worthwhile and appreciate having a role in the creative arts.Phillips reported that some who tried modeling casually found it to be rewarding, and then sought to learn more about the job. Some had previously taken an art class and seen other models, but others had relied upon fine-art museums and books for suggestions on how to pose.
Physical work
While posing, a model is expected to remain essentially motionless, and return to the same pose after a break. While holding a pose, models generally do not talk, and should not be spoken to by students, maintaining the serious atmosphere of the studio. Poses can range in length from seconds to many hours—with appropriate breaks—but the shortest is usually one minute. Short dynamic poses are used for gesture drawing exercises or warm-ups, with the model taking strenuous or precarious positions that could not be sustained for a longer pose. Sessions proceed through groups of poses increasing in duration. Active, gestural, or challenging standing poses are often scheduled at the beginning of a session when the models' energy level is highest. Specific exercises or lesson plans may require a particular type of pose, but more often the model is expected to do a series of poses with little direction. The more a model knows about the types of exercises used to teach art, the better they become at posing. Occasionally a pose will cause unexpected problems, such as constricting blood flow that could result in a model passing out. While the first time posing may cause anxiety, most continue due to the relatively high pay. The most significant characteristic of the job mentioned by models is the physical exertion required.Poses fall into three basic categories: standing, seated and reclining. Within each of these, there are varying levels of difficulty, so one kind is not always easier than another. Artists and life drawing instructors will often prefer poses in which the body is being exerted, for a more dynamic and aesthetically interesting subject. Common poses such as standing twists, slouched seated poses and especially the classical contrapposto are difficult to sustain accurately for any amount of time, although it is often surprising what a skilled model can do. The model's level of experience and skill may be taken into account in determining the length of the posing session and the difficulty of the poses. A typical short-pose session may begin with five or ten gestures, followed by two 5-, two 10-, and five 25-minute poses separated by five-minute breaks.
Models usually pose on a raised platform called the model stand or dais. When artists are working standing at easels, a model stand is essential to avoid a distorted perspective. If the model is posed standing on the floor, the artist should draw while seated. In sculpture studios this platform may be built to rotate periodically through the session to allow for a 360° view for every artist. Long poses are generally required for painting and sculpture.
Aesthetic work
When modeling for the same group, new poses are expected at each session. Most models learn on the job, but many have experience in the performing arts, athletics, or yoga that provide a basis for posing, such as strength, flexibility, and a well-developed sense of body position.Emotional work
Sexuality is an issue in an art studio where naked models are present, and has become more so with the sexualization of the body in contemporary cultures. The traditional definition of the situation in art studios has been that the nudity of models is functional, not sexual. The norms and behaviors that support this understanding included models being naked only while posing, quickly disrobing/robing and not interacting with others while naked. This understanding is less strict when student artists are also models, either in classes or posing for each other outside of class. The other aspect of sex in the arts is gender, including feminist critiques of the performance of gender in the classroom and representations of gender in figurative works.A common experience for young first-time participants in a figure class, both models and students, is overcoming anxiety for the initial session due to preconceptions regarding public nudity.
Public perception
Much of the public perception of art models and their role in the production of artworks is based upon mythology, the conflation of art modeling with fashion modeling or erotic performances, and representations of art models in popular media. One of the perennial tropes is that in addition to providing the physical form for humans in an artwork, models may be thought of as muses, or sources of inspiration without whom the art would not exist. Another popular narrative is the female model as a male artist's mistress, some of whom become wives. None of these public perceptions include the professional model's own experience of modelling as work, the performance of which has little to do with sexuality.In popular media
After becoming a celebrity in the early 1910s by posing nude for many of the notable public sculptures in the United States, Audrey Munson appeared in four films in which she portrayed a model, appearing fully nude in some, partially nude in others. In her first film Inspiration, Munson's role was that of a muse for a young artist who later married her. The lack of sexual impropriety established a precedent for the National Board of Censorship to allow or reject nudity in later films. Munson's second film Purity proves more difficult for the censors, containing a more complex allegory. Munson's plays a woman who agrees, after initial refusal, to pose nude for an artist in order to pay for a poet's work to be published in order for them to marry. The moral ambiguity of the nude scenes resulted in sharp difference of opinion between members of reviewing audiences. The result was that by 1917 the renamed National Board of Review would no longer pass films that included female nudity. This certification was not binding, allowing films to be shown in some jurisdictions, but not others.File:Audrey Munson as nude art model in movie Inspiration.jpg|thumb|Inspiration, was the first of four films featuring Audrey Munson as a nude model.
Recent films have continued the portrayal of models as muses. In The Artist and the Model, set during World War II, an elderly sculptor is prompted to resume working by the arrival of a beautiful Spanish refugee who is willing to pose. In La Belle Noiseuse an aging artist is coaxed out of retirement by an aspiring young artist's suggestion that his girlfriend pose nude for a new painting. In the film Camille Claudel ; Gérard Depardieu as Auguste Rodin interacts sexually with the nude models in his studio accompanied by Isabelle Adjani as Camille Claudel when she was Rodin's assistant. The story of the sinking of the Titanic is changed from one of pure tragedy to one of female liberation in the 1997 film by James Cameron by focusing on two fictional characters, a young impoverished artist who wins his passage in a card game and meets a young woman being forced by her mother to marry a rich man that she dislikes. The act that confirms Rose's decision to free herself is posing nude for Jack, which is soon followed by sex.