Thursday 3 January 2013

Art Modeling Poses

Source(google.com.pk)
Art Modeling Poses Biography
The Mona Lisa is a famous 16th-century portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa's mysterious smile has beguiled generations of viewers, but the true identity of the woman pictured in the portrait remains unknown, despite intensive research by art historians. Many believe the Mona Lisa to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. (Thus the Mona Lisa is known in Italy as La Gioconda.) Others have suggested the subject was a mistress of da Vinci, or even a self-portrait, with da Vinci imagining himself as a woman. It is known that Leonardo began the portrait in Florence in 1503, continued work on it through 1506, and then kept the painting until his death in 1519. Over the next three centuries the Mona Lisa passed through many hands, even hanging for a time in the bedroom of Napoleon, but since 1804 its home has been the Louvre Museum in Paris. Leonardo's painting is famous among artists for its innovative techniques, including sfumato (shown in the painting's distinctive hazy, soft-focus effect) and chiaroscuro (use of light and shadow).he Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, but recovered in Italy in 1913... Some believe that the name La Gioconda is a play on "the merry woman," a reference to her smile. In France, the Mona Lisa is called La Joconde... The popular tune Mona Lisa calls her "the lady with the mystic smile." The song was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the 1950 movie Captain Carey, USA; it won an Oscar as the year's best song and was also a hit for Nat King Cole.As a kid, Matuschka constantly drew and doodled if she was not re-decorating her room--- particularly paying attention to the ‘art of window dressing’ as a vehicle to showcase her art and decorations to the outside world. A series of untimely deaths left Matuschka, at age 13 an orphan and she ran away to NYC when she was 14. After a year on the lam, the juvenile became a ward of the state of NJ. In the early 70s she was adopted by her first foster mom, Mrs. Marco (a former art student of Washington University and a special ed teacher) who recognized Matuschka’s raw talent. Immediately, she enrolled the teenager in art courses, sent her to NYC museums, provided art books from the local library and encouraged Matuschka to model to earn extra cash. At a fraction of an inch under 6 feet- the aspiring artist soon became known as an artist’s model: a muse and inspiration for many renown photographers and painters including herself. Little did anyone know that Mrs. Marco’s introduction to the arts and the art of modeling would become a modus operandi throughout Matuschka’s life and she would use her body as ‘subject’ and ‘object’ for decades.When foster home placement terminated in homelessness, the State of NJ made an interesting decision to export Matuschka to a progressive, expensive boarding school in the Berkshires to finish high school. Arriving on the tail end of the Alice’s Restaurant and the James Taylor scene Matuschka quickly installed herself as the artist’s model of the region while continuing her art studies both privately and at local institutions. She worked with well known photographers and artists including Clemence Kalisher, Don Snyder and the late Jan de Ruth. At night, she stood in front of her own easel and a mirror in a cellar (dungeon) of an old Victorian mansion vigorously creating expressionistic works on paper. Her first solo show at 18 was at the Lenox Library and reviewed in the Berkshire Eagle. Upon graduating from Windsor Mt, that summer she traveled throughout Europe, on what she would call her first Museum tour abroad. Spending most of her time in Paris at the Louvere or in Amsterdam “visiting Van Gogh” everyday, this trip began her love affair with Europe and many subsequent visits and residencies would follow.
Returning from her first trip to England, and back to New England, Matuschka packed up her 1968 Volvo and headed west to attend Prescott College in Arizona (in lieu of matriculating at Washington University in St.Louis, where ironically her foster mother had graduated decades before). Prescott College virtually had no art department so after a year of horseback riding in the desert, collecting animal skulls and watching the sun go down over cactus silhouettes, Matuschka returned east.
Arriving in NYC on the edgy end of Warhol’s Factory scene, Matuschka enrolled in SVA, moonlighted at night as the first female taxi driver hired by a commercial fleet and hung with the hip and infamous. In the seventies NYC was a thriving Mecca for artists and as the late Peter Jennings put it: the City was some sort of container of dreams, a muse to artists, hipsters, inventors and entrepreneurs. In the 70s NYC was not only a beacon of optimism and energy, it was a dynamo stick of liberty.”That “dynamite stick of liberty” became Matuschka’s motto and despite a full schedule of college courses and hacking, Matuschka resumed her modeling career-- posing for many famous photographers, artists, illustrators and designers of that era---- including the late Charles James, videographer Anton Perich, photographers Bill Silano, Jeff Dunas, Gerald Malanga (of Warhol’s factory) and illustrators Richard Ely and Barbara Fox. Her body served a variety of purposes: “earning and learning”. “Money for nothing, photographs for free” was her slogan but painting was still her main passion: at SVA she studied with Jennifer Bartlett who taught her: ‘to be responsible for every square inch of your canvas.” “If not for Jennifer, the artist wrote, “I wouldn’t have discovered my main infatuation, or jazz: abstract painting. That’s when I switched from figurative work for a world of visual mathematics.”Although Matuschka was on full scholarship she quit college suddenly while the punk era of the 70s and Studio 54 were flourishing. Itching to experience Europe again, her travels brought her to Italy and France. Modeling afforded her this opportunity and her journey culminated in residencies in Italy, France and London where she preferred trips to Museums over go-sees and appointments with fashion fanatics. Able to secure enough work as a fashion model her escapades put her in contact with many interesting internationals (including Salvador Dali, the artist Peter Max, writer, Anthony Haden Guest, screenwriter Norman Wexler (Saturday Night Fever) and John Beluschi among many. While traveling, Matuschka often took out her make up and magic markers and made caricatures and cartoons of the people she met, often photographing them first with her SX-70 Polaroid camera.Contact your local art school or college to see if they are hiring art models. You can start with the art department, but ask if there is someone in particular assigned to hire models for all classes. Sometimes each instructor hires their own models. If you want to pose for a photographer, also look on any one of a number of websites that link models to photographers. Free online classified advertising websites also often post ads for nude models. This is the first step because it may in fact be difficult to find work in a tight economy. Interestingly, male models are in especially short supply in some geographic areas.Length - Poses for figure drawing generally fall into three categories: gestures which are less than three minutes, short poses which are three to 20 minutes, and long poses which are done for as long as necessary in 20 minute intervals with a short break in between. The latter is generally the norm for painting and sculpture; drawing classes will require a number of shorter poses. Any class may begin with a few gestures as a "warm-up".e Expressive - draw on any personal experience to think of poses that are interesting or inspiring. Any physical activity may be a source of good poses. Many models draw on the poses done in classical works of art, but these should only supply ideas, not be copied.At 24 Matuschka quit her modeling agency and decided to write her memoirs. Parts of her unpublished book (Flaming Peaches) were excerpted in two issues of  Oui Magazine- then owned by the Playboy Empire. Anthony Haden Guest wrote the feature essay and Jeff Dunas photographed the ‘spread.’ With the advent of this publication, Matuschka’s career as an artist took off and she soon found herself back in Europe where she would start a significant body of work based on the red light district in Amsterdam. By the mid eighties Matuschka was spending as much time in NYC as Europe and added scenic artist, video editor and, window dresser to her resume after being hired to dress a number of NYC shops including Bergdoff Goodman’s windows on Fifth Avenue.  She also sang lead and wrote songs for a Rock Band called “The Ruins” (which had a record deal pending) exhibited her artwork in downtown galleries and her series entitled Whores Galore a figurative exploration of women of the night was almost sold out.n 1987, with the record deal in the basement and her band evolving in other directions, Matuschka chose photography as her main medium and began taking pictures of herself in abandoned buildings based on a song she wrote called the Ruins. This series, was published in many fine art magazines internationally while exhibits were mounted at the Woodstock Center of Photography and the Photographic Museum of Helsinki. The Ruins a large photographic body of work, based on Matuschka’s body is considered her first major work known to the public.
 “Matuschka’s work is self-absorbed but her self-absorption has nothing to do with either narcissism or the reverse narcissism of self-loathing. She is her own raw material. And she looks at her raw material objectively and manipulates it unflinchingly in a way, which now seems uncannily predictive.” - anthony haden-guestFor many years, Matuschka was a dynamic presence on the NYC art scene, collaborating with other artists and recognized and honored for her work in a variety of mediums. Although her accomplishments as an artist are central to her career, it was her activism in the 90s that is generally regarded as her greatest contribution and achievement.In 1991 at the peak of Matuschka’s recognition for her Ruins (self) Portraits, the artist was diagnosed with breast cancer and her body much like her work changed significantly. Ironically she would reach a world-wide audience when she broke topless taboos, after appearing bare-breasted and bare-chested on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine in a self-portrait entitled Beauty Out of Damage. This imaged earned her the Rachel Carson Award, a Pulitzer nomination, and in 2003, “Beauty Out of Damage” was chosen by Life as 1 of 100  pictures that changed the world since the camera was invented.
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses
Art Modeling Poses

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