GARCIA, Celine Marie L.

HUM1

3LIT1

07/10/16

HUMANITIES PRELIM

The difference between the nude and the naked has been discussed and argued,
defended and defied, first articulated in Lord Kenneth Clarks book published in 1956,
The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form. In the introduction of his book, Clark differentiates the
naked as a simple state of total undress while the nude is a way of seeing the naked as a
work of art. However, in John Bergers essay Nude vs. Naked, published in 1972 in his
book Ways of Seeing, he further elaborates on the differences of nude and naked art:

To be naked is to be oneself.
To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for
oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to be
nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an
object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.
In Bergers further elaboration, it is implied that the subject of nude art, often a
woman, is objectified to turn their naked body into a work of art. This is backed up by
the social expectations on men and women: that men act (as they are the assumed
makers of art; ergo, their act is to objectify women to elevate themselves and their art)
and women appear (as they are depicted and turned into art objects viewed and made
for the pleasure of men).
With these definitions of the nude and naked in mind, this paper will attempt to
determine and argue for the nude and naked properties of two art objects: an untitled
wooden sculpture by an unknown artist from the private collection of renowned art

critic, journalist, and artist, Emilio Ab Aguilar Cruz; and a watercolour painting from
proficient sketcher and architect, Antonio Doctor Garcia.

The Naked

Emilio Aguilar Cruz, born on June 5, 1915 in Pampanga, was an Impressionist

who, at first, only dabbled in painting while maintaining a journalistic career in the
countrys premier literary periodicals, including Graphic Magazine, Sunday Times
Magazine, the Daily Mirror, and the Manila Times. He continued editorial work until
the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972. The Daily Mirror, of which he
was the chief editor at the time, was shut down by the administration. Only then did he
turn into a professional painter (The Manila Times, 2015). At the time, he was into
nudes to help him better his knowledge of anatomy since he did not finish his formal
education in art in the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines. Even
before he owned up to being a professional, or as Aguilar Cruz liked to call it,
gentleman painter, he was already associated with a group of artists called the
Saturday Group (The Manila Times, 2015). Later, he founds another group by
discovering two paintings in the shops below his studio in Ermita. The artists of the
paintings lived that time on Calle Dimasalang and Aguilar Cruz then named the group
after the street: the Dimasalang Groupa group of artists that specialized in painting
nudes (Sanchez, 2009) (The Manila Times, 2015).
The sculpture in question, given the title Undressing Woman, was a decorative
piece in Aguilar Cruzs studio in Ermita, donated by his daughter, Therese Cruz, to the
National Museums gallery dedicated to Aguilar Cruz. The date of make and artist of
the sculpture is unknown. Instead, on the title card of the sculpture on display in the

Museum is Thereses comment on her fathers tendency to acquire art even without an
artist if he found it interesting.
The Undressing Woman is depicted squatting with her arms in the middle of
removing her clothes bunching up on her arms. Every part of the woman is exposed
except for her arms. The woman is not performing her near-undress for pleasure of the
spectator and/or the protagonist. Clothes encumber contact and movement (Berger,
1972). The act of removing clothes has visual value that makes the spectator want to
see the object, in this case, the woman, naked. However, the woman is not undressing
for the spectator but for her own purpose. Taking into consideration the position of her
bodyfeet close together while squatting, her sex hidden between her pressed thighs,
arms in the process of removing her clothes, hair in a modest bun behind her headone
can assume that her next action after undressing is to take a bath.
The sculpture can be likened to Bergers example of a naked work of art, Helene
Fourment in a Fur Coat by Rubens, which, by Bergers standards, is an exceptional
image of nakedness (Berger, 1972). Like Rubens work, the subject of this art object is
caught in the middle of a dynamic act. It is easy to imagine that moments before the
sculpture was formed, the woman was only preparing to remove her clothes and it is
also easy to imagine that after a few moments pass since the image of the woman was
captured on the sculpture she is on her way to discarding her clothes, fully naked. This
is in parallel with how Berger described the Rubens painting (Berger, 1972):

The consecutive stages up to and away from the moment of total

disclosure have been transcended. She (the subject) can belong to
any or all of them simultaneously.
Even if the sculpture is subject to Clarks description of the naked, it would
continue being a naked sculpture (Clark, 1956). The subject herself is depriving herself

of clothes, and a certain level of embarrassment and shame comes in when we assume
that her next action after achieving nakedness is to take a bath. But even with the
embarrassment and shame, the simple act of undressing caught and captured in the
sculpture shows that undressing is a common thing done by allthe woman is like
other women, other people. This moment is described to us by Berger (Berger, 1972):

... at the moment of nakedness first perceived, an element of

banality enters: an element that exists only because we need it.
The banality is needed since the woman cannot be sexualised and objectified
since she is separate and indifferent to the spectator and the artist. The woman is wholly
immersed in her act of undressing that she cannot be turned into a nude by neither the
artist nor the spectator.

The Nude

Antonio Doctor Garcia, born in 1937 in Manila, is a proficient in sketching

notable edifices even at the young age of six. He studied architecture at the
Technological Institute of the Philippines in Manila and, later, before proceeding to
make a name for himself as a fulltime artist, worked under and for Leandro Locsin,
National Artist for Architecture. Garcia is ambidextrous, sketching with his left hand
and finishing with his right (Heritage Art Center, 2012).
Despite being known for his architectural sketches, Garcia has numerous female
nude sketches in watercolour, pen, ink, and charcoal currently on display in Galeria de
las Islas in Intramuros. One of his works on display is entitled A Woman of Courage,
showing a woman naked until her hips, her hands in her hair as if trying to tie it into a
ponytail.

In the watercolour, the woman is not directly looking at the artist. However, she
is aware that she is being surveyed because of her body language: her torso is angled
towards the artist and her arms are splayed open in the same direction with the manner
she works with her hair. The supposed courageous woman depicted does not show any
courage at all, but submission to the artist-owners desires and, in this particular
instance, a sight for him to look upon. As Berger stated (Berger, 1972)

Her body is arranged the way it is, to display it to the man looking
at the picture. ... It has nothing to do with her sexuality. ... Women
are there to feed an appetite, not to have any of their own.
The title of the work calls it a woman of courage, probably referring to her
courage to bare herself naked and pose for the artist, but her expression in the painting
is far from courageous and more leaning towards submissive, much like Bergers
example, Nell Gwynne by Lely, where the woman submits herself to the artist and to the
owner of both her and the painting of her (Berger, 1972).

This nakedness is not, however, an expression of her own feelings;

it is a sign of her submission to the owners feelings or demands.
(The owner of both woman and painting.)
Another characteristic of A Woman of Courage that makes it a nude painting,
aside from the fact that it says so in its title card and tag price, is how the artist
neglected to include details of her pubic hair in the painting. This was done because,
according to Berger (Berger, 1972):

... in the European tradition generally, the convention of not

painting the hair on a womans body helps toward the same end.
Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion. The womans

sexual passion needs to be minimized so that the spectator may feel

that he has the monopoly of such passion.
The woman is depicted how the artist-owner wants to depict her, not how she is
as a person. This courage title erases her identity and replaces it with the artistowners own ideal of how and what she should be. As explained by Berger (Berger,
1972):

To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for

oneself. ... To be on display is to have the surface of ones own skin,
the hairs of ones own body, turned into a disguise which, in that
situation, can never be discarded.

References

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. In J. Berger, Ways of Seeing (p. 165). London:
Penguin Books Ltd.
Clark, K. (1956). The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form. In K. Clark, The Nude: a Study
in Ideal Form. London: The Folio Society.
Galeria de las Islas. (2014, May 28). Antonio Doctor Garcia. Retrieved October 6,
2016, from Galeria de las Islas:
https://www.facebook.com/GALERIADLASISLAS/posts/778151368896280
Heritage Art Center. (2012). Antonio Doctor Garcia. Retrieved October 6, 2016,
from Heritage Art Center: http://www.heritageartcenter.com/2012/02/antonio-doctorgarcia.html
Joaquin, N. (206). Ab: a Frank Sketch of E. Aguilar Cruz. In N. Joaquin, Ab: a
Frank Sketch of E. Aguilar Cruz. Angeles City: Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for
Kapampangan Studies, Holy Angel University.
Nead, L. (1992). The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity and Sexuality. In L. Nead, The
Female Nude: Art, Obscenity and Sexuality. London: Routledge.
Sanchez, J. C. (2009). Emilio Aguilar Cruz. Retrieved October 6, 2016, from
OoCities (formerly GeoCities): http://www.oocities.org/sinupan/agularac.htm
The Manila Times. (2015, January 3). Abe: Great artist at easel and typewriter; great
human being. Retrieved October 6, 2016, from The Manila Times:
http://www.manilatimes.net/abe-great-artist-easel-typewriter-great-human/152751/