Painting another person is an extremely intimate practice, whether painting a subject in person, from a photograph or from memory, it requires an extreme focus on the details of their face and/or body, a relationship with their emotions or setting, and an intention to represent them either visually or conceptually. In doing so, there is a distinct painting-subject relationship, which I have considered previously when examining context, viewership and the notion of the gaze, however, it is extremely interesting to consider the difference in this relationship – and the practice as a whole – when we examine portraiture and figurative painting in parallel.
Although both are concerned with painting people, they differ in one key aspect; a focus on identity vs form. When thinking about portraiture, I imagine you might visualise a traditional portrait of a vaguely smiling individual, slightly off centre from the viewing perspective, probably in oil, and representational of the individual. Or maybe you think of something less conventional, a Picasso or Dali, where the face is disassembled, stretched or distorted? Either way, when we consider portraiture, we consider the face, the recognisability of a person, and hence, their identity. Yet when referring to figurative painting, in many cases – life drawing studies being a prime example – often the face is obscured or bypassed altogether, with the focus on the lines, tone, shapes and forms of the body. Although, of course, our bodies are just as distinctive and unique as our faces, we do not use them as a token of our identity in the same way as our faces, and there is also an element of privacy and intimacy that is more prominent when considering the body – as I have discussed when considering the universality of body inhabitation. So why is it that we consider painting the face to express identity, personality and character, while painting the body becomes more about physicality, form and presence?
There is – as always – not cut and dried reason for this, however I would like to propose that it once again links to the idea of the gaze, objectification and voyeurism. Since many of the origins of figurative art stem from the painted nude, and particularly the female painted nude – with the exception of Greek classical sculpture and painting – it is only logical that this depiction of the body is linked to the gaze, and the power structures created by a male painter observing and reacting to a female (nude) subject. It is often noted how medieval painters would view multiple nude female models before selecting a dozen or so to sketch from, in pursuit of creating the ‘ideal’ representation of the body for their completed work. This exemplifies not only the objectification of the body, through the viewership and selection process, but also the consistent prominence of constructs of beauty and desirability which are still present in contemporary society.
Although these social constructs still exist, we have – in the last century – seen a vast progression away from representative painting, both in portraiture and figurative art, building on the work of Egon Schiele and the like, we have branched out to see contemporary painters represent the body through abstract shape, line, colour, expressionist, reacting to and approaching a dialogue around the body, rather than merely trying to portray it in the most ‘beautiful’ or ‘ideal’ way.
As you will know from my own work, I approach these same concepts in a slightly different way. Whilst mostly still overlooking the face of my subjects, I focus on portions of the figure through a cropping and stylisation process. Sometimes this creates a new context altogether; a landscape or pattern, while other times it simply highlights a certain area of the body. My hope is that in doing so the context of the figure is removed, and by proxy, the identity is removed, however unlike the classical practice of facial removal because objectification, I am concerned with how the removal of identity can unify the multitude of bodies I do paint, focusing on their unique qualities, as well as the universal nature of existing within the very thing you are viewing, painting or seeing.
There are some artists who work both with portraiture and figurative work and especially in the cases on Jenny Saville, Lucian Freud, Marlene Dumas and the like, notions of objectification, gaze and power are challenged and discussed, not only through the inclusion and focus on both face and body, but also through compositional and technical processes employed by each artist. In the case of Saville, her physical process and the application of paint make her works undeniably bodily in subject and material, with heavy layers of paint reflecting the anatomy of skin layered on muscle, and line and tone representing blemishes and realities of the bodies, rather than the polished ‘perfection’ or the classical nude. Often, her subjects are also painted from unconventional angles or perspectives, with the model directing their gaze back at the viewer, challenging the constructs of the gaze in a similar way to Elly Smallwood – as discussed in my Women Painting Women post.
Freud, while still painting in a fairly traditional manner; a live model in the studio for lengthy sittings, raises discussions around objectification and the painter-subject relationship in a very different way. Like Saville, his choice of subject is much more diverse and representative of ‘normal’ bodies than classical Greek sculpture or medieval portraiture, however conversely, he does still paint in relatively conventional poses, particularly for his nude paintings. What I find interesting however, is the implied relationship between Freud and the subject, especially in some instances where the model is painted sleeping and we can feel an obvious comfort between both individuals, rather than an ownership imposed upon the subject by being painted by another.
Overall, there does still seem to be a conflict between portraiture and figurative painting, yet as artists develop techniques that evolve away from conventional beauty ideals, traditional structures and poses, more inclusivity of models and representation, we can begin to see how the painted body may begin to become as representational of identity of person as a portrait is, rather than only being concerned with form or shape. Both through realism, expressionist style and abstract painting, we see the body take on new roles and concepts and in removing notions of objectification or simplification of context, I hope to see figurative art encompass new and exciting ideas.