This is the first study of a fascinating, international phenomenon in
the art of the past century. Naked portraiture is an original hybrid of
the traditional genres of the nude and portrait, and has been created by
an astonishing range of major artists, in many different media and in a
variety of major artistic centres. Martin Hammer's ground-breaking book
compares work by painters such as Egon Schiele, Paula Modersohn-Becker,
Pierre Bonnard, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Tracey Emin and Jenny
Saville. The analysis encompasses a rich tradition of naked portraiture
using photographic media, produced by figures such as Alfred Stieglitz,
Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Boris Mikhailov, Nan Goldin, Gary Schneider
and Melanie Manchot. The subjects are men and woman, old and young,
black and white, healthy and disabled. They might be lovers, close
relatives or friends, with their nakedness suggesting the intimacy and
tenderness existing between artist and subject. Conversely, the artist
might not know them