The Naked Nude, by Frances Borzello: review http://goo.gl/bpYNK

The Naked Nude offers a fascinating, often humorous overview of our obsession with the naked body, and benefits from many wonderful colour reproductions. From the ancient Greeks in their desire to cast man as an Apollo in all his skinny splendour, to Frida Kahlo exploring her own body post miscarriage, and Marina Abramović bearing her naked self to the public for exploration – or mutilation – Borzello’s book covers rich ground.

The most interesting questions to emerge from Borzello’s book are consequently those which urge us to reconsider our position on what we would like to see in art concerned with the naked body. Are we tired of being shocked, or has the nude simply lost its ability to be subversive, even at its most naked? As Borzello’s penultimate chapter probes, ‘After Rodin, Is There Anything Left To Say?’

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