The relationship between life drawing and the genre of the nude in European art is complex and reflexive, and the diversity of drawings in Drawn from Life attests to differing sexual and cultural meanings of the nude. A few of the works are overtly erotic, and push life drawing to the margins of art-historical respectability, to the edge of the pornographic. Many are undeniably sensual and intimate. They question the relationship between artist, model and viewer, one that is of critical significance in our understanding of the place of the nude in European culture.
Artists
Ian Armstrong
Julian Ashton
George Bell
Jean Bellette
Vivienne Binns
Karna Birmingham
Elise Blumann
Stella Bowen
Arthur Boyd
John Brack
Horace Brodzky
Rupert Bunny
George Coates
Sybil Craig
Grace Crowley
Janet Dawson
William Dobell
Russell Drysdale
Rah Fizelle
Donald Friend
Henry Gibbons
Brent Harris
Ivor Hele
Joy Hester
Frank Hinder
Nan Hortin
George W. Lambert
John Longstaff
Mildred Lovett
Francis Lymburner
Bea Maddock
Rosemary Madigan
Max Meldrum
Godfrey Miller
Sidney Nolan
Adelaide Perry
Ada May Plante
Theo Proctor
Peter Purves Smith
Hugh Ramsay
Constance Stokes
Arthur Streeton
William Strutt
Eveline Syme
Dorothy Thornhill
Barbara Tribe
John R. Walker
Christine Waller
Charles Wheeler
Fred Williams
Eric Wilson
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Curated by Deborah Clark
Organised by National Gallery of Australia
Tour: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Nedlands; Noosa Regional Gallery; Orange Regional Gallery
