All one has to do is enter “Classical Nude” into any search engine to discover hundreds of thousands of images. If one looks closer it can be noted that fewer than 10% feature the male figure. Of those that do, fewer still show the work in classical media like painting, drawing, and sculpture.
This book seeks to bring some balance to figurative art world and showcase the classical male figure in a volume representing both male and female artists from around the world including Japan, China, Iran, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England, Scotland, France, Mexico, Canada, and all parts of the United States from New York to Hawaii. The works of art in this book are broad and varied; from portraiture to classical nude studies, from Pop Art to abstract to photorealism.
More than a reference book, 100 Artists of the Male Figure is a survey of contemporary artists who have bravely decided to feature and focus on masculine beauty in all its permutations. The variety is astonishing; the imagery, moving; and the artists, focused.
This book is decidedly modest in its presentation, and includes information on each artist so that the reader can explore their favorites in more depth, ask questions of the artists or their galleries, and learn how to see these magnificent works of art in person.
No other book exists on the market dedicated to the classical male figure by artists of today in painting, drawing, and sculpture. This ground-breaking work is a “must have” in any library that features the figurative fine arts. This volume is sure to be a classic and an important reference manuscript for generations to come.
E. Gibbons and Schiffer Publishing Ltd. deserve a round of kudos for the courage to place before the general public a book as fine as 100 ARTISTS OF THE MALE FIGURE: A CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY OF PAINTING, DRAWING, AND SCULPTURE. This book has been the brainchild of artist Gibbons that has been brewing for some time. With the now year long publication of the art quarterly THE ART OF MAN He began his commitment to gain public introduction to the fine art of artists who happen to include images of the male figure in their repertoire, not as a skewed branch of eroticism but simply for the purpose of overcoming the too frequently encountered stigma of books offering image of males as 'outsider', designed for a special audience alone. Even in this age when there is considerable more freedom of expression of the male figure by the famous artists of the day - Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente, Theophilus Brown, Bo Bartlett, John Currin, Kehinde Wiley, Eric Fischl, Odd Nerdrum et al - the exposure of artists who have the gift to restore the dignity of the male figure to the level of the beginnings of art in the Greco-Roman realm has been slighted.
In this fine book there are 100 excellent artists presented in a well designed format: each artist is given two pages for a photograph, a brief and often pithy and erudite artist statement, and large scale reproductions of some of their paintings. Many of the artists included in this collection are very well established and will be readily recognized while others are less well-known but equally talented practitioners of their art. The artists selected by Gibbons range from classically oriented, to expressionistic, to illustrative, to finely executed sculptors. Reading through this book will be an eye opening experience for almost every art lover. This book is an open invitation to celebrate the male form and the artists who devote a hefty part of their output to lifting the male figure back onto the plinth that has too long been neglected. This is a very sophisticated book and we can only hope there will be future volumes allowing even more artists to be viewed and appreciated. Highly Recommended.
