Today I happened to catch a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, titled "A Body of Work". It was pretty interesting and prompted me to Google the artist they were talking about, the one who painted the picture above. Then I read this article, and excerpted from the beginning of that article is the following exchange between the writer of the article and the curator at the musuem. The writer of the article asks which body type do artists consider "picture perfect"? She got a surprising answer.
More often than not.
Most beautiful.
In ALL of Western art.
Plus-size.
Boy have things changed. Nowadays people would rather have an incurable disease than look anything like that woman. But there are still those who appreciate the beauty of that painting, or one by Rubens or even a painting or sculpture by Botero; last year when the painting sold, someone paid $33.6 million dollars for it, the highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist. And the subject of the paiting, Sue Tilley, weighed 20 stone (that's 280 pounds) at the time of the portrait. I know people who look like Sue Tilley. Now she's hanging on someone's wall. And they paid $120,000.00 a pound to put her there.
I always knew there was a benefit to being plus-sized; now if only I can get someone to paint a picture of me lying around in the buff, looking all exhausted from my rough day on the road and then find someone else who's willing to cough up a cool thirty six mil for it.
I'm not afraid to say that I'd get naked in a heartbeat for that kind of green. Talk about a great celebration of abundance!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO: Dormers Of Sweetgrass
2 YEARS AGO: Old Power
3 YEARS AGO: At Your Service
4 YEARS AGO: Clothing Identification 101
The naked truth is that, more often than not, the women considered the most beautiful in all of Western art would qualify as plus-size.Let me repeat that first sentence; the naked truth is that, more often than not, the women considered the most beautiful in all of Western art would qualify as plus-size.
"They aren't skinny, but they're very beautiful," says Joe Rishel, senior curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
"And is that the point?" asked Teichner.
"That's the point," he said.
More often than not.
Most beautiful.
In ALL of Western art.
Plus-size.
Boy have things changed. Nowadays people would rather have an incurable disease than look anything like that woman. But there are still those who appreciate the beauty of that painting, or one by Rubens or even a painting or sculpture by Botero; last year when the painting sold, someone paid $33.6 million dollars for it, the highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist. And the subject of the paiting, Sue Tilley, weighed 20 stone (that's 280 pounds) at the time of the portrait. I know people who look like Sue Tilley. Now she's hanging on someone's wall. And they paid $120,000.00 a pound to put her there.
I always knew there was a benefit to being plus-sized; now if only I can get someone to paint a picture of me lying around in the buff, looking all exhausted from my rough day on the road and then find someone else who's willing to cough up a cool thirty six mil for it.
I'm not afraid to say that I'd get naked in a heartbeat for that kind of green. Talk about a great celebration of abundance!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO: Dormers Of Sweetgrass
2 YEARS AGO: Old Power
3 YEARS AGO: At Your Service
4 YEARS AGO: Clothing Identification 101
4 comments:
And if they need a back-up model... I'm there!
I hit the cookies after reading this!
Amen sister.....Amen!
Hi.Thanks for the compliments on my things. Yes I have a shop on etsy,
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7831064
I am also following you on flickr now, you have some great pics, I am Turner Portrait on there. I bet now you are thinking " Oh no, I have a cyber stalker" LOL.
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