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"The nude does not simply represent the body, but relates it by analogy to all structures that have become part of our imaginable experience." - Sir Kenneth Clark from The Nude. In the thousands of years of art-making of which we are aware, certainly there has been no subject more frequently focused upon than that of the human nude. Nor is there a subject more loaded, and, consequently, more open to interpretation and analysis. As art historian Kenneth Clark noted in his infamous volume subtitled "a study in ideal form" published in 1956 and cited above, the nude is not merely a formal subject, but a multivalent body laden with information, layered with history and wrapped in cultural implications. The nude, in effect, is never naked. The way an artist approaches the body may be mined for the sexual, psychological, historical, political, and social characteristics of both that artist and the period in which they work(ed). From the voluptuous Venus of Wollendorf to Michelangelo's idealized Renaissance David to Manet's defiantly sexual Olympia, the nude has proved a compelling subject and revealing manifestation of how we view ourselves and our world.

With this vast history coloring our vision, how can an artist ever approach the nude anew? A tenet of any fine arts education, live figure drawing still carries the association of classical training. In response, artists since the late 19th century have chipped away at, and ultimately exploded all signs of Academic approach, offering such radical departures as Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon- works more grounded in conceptual concerns than in figurative likeness. Yet realistically rendered, fleshy bodies have far from disappeared, as the works of contemporary artists as diverse as Lucian Freud, Alice Neel, Eric Fischl, Kiki Smith, Francesco Clemente, Louise Bourgeois and John Currin, just to name a few, attest. Reflecting a resurgent interest in the body in conjunction with a critical consideration of the politics of representation and gender construction, these artists approach the nude fully aware of its history, often knowingly engaging, critiquing and dismantling that history even while reveling in sensual form.

This exhibition by no means represents an inclusive portrait of the nude in art today. Culled from an open call for entries in the Kansas City area, it does bring together two and three-dimensional work by artists from a range of backgrounds, aesthetic interests, ages, media and approaches. Works range from highly realistic to abstract, some are sketches, others finished works. In some cases skillful rendering is central, others succeed in capturing an essence, an idea or an emotion. The number of artists who submitted entries for The Grand Nude Show is testimony to the enduring interest in the nude, and the diversity of work selected a testimony to the complexity and richness of the subject. Ultimately, the nude is both the most fundamental and the most difficult subject upon which an artist might draw. And thus the nude in art persists.

<Kate Hackman>

Guest Juror