Individual view: Five celebrities who went nude for art

8 December 2017

Naked models take e'er featured in art, and celebrities accept always posed for pictures - it's no surprise that there is some level of crossover. As a new Regal University exhibition celebrates the practice of life drawing, we look at the famous figures with naked portraits of their own.

WARNING: This article contains several images of artwork featuring uncensored nudity.

ane. Iggy Popular life class

Installation View of From Life at the Regal Academy of Arts, London, showing Jeremy Deller's Iggy Pop Life Class (2016) | © Brooklyn Museum, Photographer credit: David Parry

The American singer-songwriter known as the "Godfather of Punk" is no stranger to going topless when performing on stage, only he went ane stride further in 2016 by becoming the subject of a special life drawing class at the New York Academy of Art.

Based on an idea past artist Jeremy Deller, twenty-one artists from all walks of life participated in Iggy Pop Life Class to study and sketch the naked form of the star, who adopted a diversity of poses.

"For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the bailiwick of a life class," said Deller. "His body is cardinal to an understanding of stone music and its place within American culture. His torso has witnessed much and should be documented."

Iggy Pop himself praised the 'very nice vibe' in the room, and had a novel way to stave off boredom during the twenty-minute sittings: "The manner I got through information technology, without going crazy, was listening to my own songs from my albums in my head," the vocalist said.

The sketches created during the class were then exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, and volition be on display as part of the From Life exhibition at the Royal University of Arts from 11 December 2017.

Iggy Pop posing for New York artists on February 21, 2016 | Photograph: Elena Olivo, © Brooklyn Museum

ii. Lady Gaga sketched past Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett (left) | Lady Gaga, charcoal on paper, xviii" ten 24", © 2011 Benedetto/Bennett (right)

Non only content with his music career, his 19 Grammy awards and sales of over 50 meg records worldwide, jazz vocalist Tony Bennett is also a successful painter.

Working under his existent name Anthony Benedetto, he has exhibited in several galleries and fifty-fifty been deputed by the United nations. Having begun equally a child, he claims to paint or sketch every day, oftentimes when on tour.

In 2011 Bennett and pop icon Lady Gaga collaborated on a duet of jazz standard The Lady Is A Tramp, and that same year the pair were photographed by Annie Liebowitz for Vanity Fair. The shoot featured Gaga posing naked in presumably Bennett's artist studio, with this piece of artwork appearing in frame.

Several accessories from the shoot were auctioned off for clemency including the signed sketch, which was sold for $30,000. All proceeds went to two charities associated with the celebrities: Tony Bennett'southward Exploring the Arts arrangement; and Lady Gaga's Born This Style Foundation.

3. Sir Sean Connery before he was famous

In 2011 a nude oil painting of Sean Connery from 1951 was discovered in the drove of Selkirk artist Rab Webster later his death at the historic period of 83.

At that place were always lots of girls in the classes because they were attracted by his Adonis-like physique.

Webster had been a student at the Edinburgh Higher of Art when he painted information technology; who would take idea the handsome effigy posing for his life drawing class would go on to become James Bond?

Earlier the 1962 film Dr. No shot Connery to worldwide superstardom, Edinburgh-born Connery would often earn extra cash as a life model for the Edinburgh College of Art, taking advantage of the bodybuilder muscles he'd developed to impress the local young women.

Richard Demarco, a local artist and promoter, was amongst those who painted Connery as a young man, and described his popularity with the ladies at the time: "When he modelled there were e'er lots of girls in the classes considering they were attracted by his Adonis-similar physique. He was a great inspiration for any artist and was amazing to pigment and depict."

Eventually the beefy young Connery would be encouraged to enter the Mr. Universe contest, during which he caught the eye of a local casting director who gave him his first acting role in a London production of South Pacific.

Image: Sean Connery portrait by Rab Webster (oil on canvass, 1951)

iv. Lindsay Lohan commissions nude street art

In 2014, the American actress and singer was appearing in a production of David Mamet play Stop-The-Plow at the Playhouse Theatre; it was while living in London at this time she learned of local street artist Pegasus after seeing his portrait of pop-star Kylie Minogue.

Both figures were huge fans of silver screen icon Marilyn Monroe, with Pegasus depicting her in many of his pieces and with Lohan having often imitated her poses, including in 2011 when she recreated Monroe's 1949 series of nude photographs against red velvet for Playboy.

Lohan must take thought Pegasus was the perfect choice to arrange one of these Playboy centrefolds and commissioned him to create the pictured artwork. Clearly enamoured with the portrait, Lohan posted on Instagram to show the work proudly displayed on her dressing room wall at the Playhouse.

Lindsey Lohan based her pose on an iconic Marilyn Monroe photograph | Prototype © Pegasus

5. Kate Moss oil painting by Lucian Freud

British painter Lucian Freud was i of the foremost portraitists of the 20th century, and was particularly known for his realistically detailed nudes, which sometimes required models to pose every evening for months at a fourth dimension.

I went to his business firm and he started the nude painting that night. Couldn't say no to Lucian.

The painter met and befriended model Kate Moss in 2002 later she mentioned that he was the person she would about like to meet. Afterward they went for dinner, he soon began painting her in the nude when she was pregnant with her daughter, Lila Grace. The painting took 9 months to consummate and was after sold for £iii.9m at auction.

All the same, this was non the only creative collaboration betwixt the two. Moss was excited to learn that when Freud had been a fellow in the navy, he used to do homemade tattoos using permanent ink and a scalpel for his fellow sailors.

He later on gave her a similar tattoo of two tiny swallows at the base of her spine using the same method – making Kate Moss both bailiwick and sail for ane of Britain's greatest artists.

Paradigm: Kate Moss, 2002 (oil on sail), Freud, Lucian (1922-2011) / Private Drove / © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images

The From Life exhibition runs from xi December 2017 - 11 March 2018 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. For farther information please run across their website.

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