The Body
A. R. WILLIAMS
Contemporary photographer
clinically trained and specialized
as a medical illustrator. Williams
made this image by light
sectioning: fine beams of light
projected onto a woman's
body draw the celebratory
contours of her form like
a cartographer's map of
undulating land. We understand
every curve and balance of
her impressive presence
because we are given such
a controlled, sculptural
description of her form. She
could easily be transferred
into three dimensions. This
finished image was produced as
a print on Kodak transfer paper
with green-colored dye added
over the initially white lines.
Lateral Contour Map of
a Full-Term Primipara
Produced by Light
1979
113 / 4 x 7 in (300 x 180 mm)
A. R. WILLIAMS
O
UR BODIES MAKE us TANGIBLE, and we draw ourselves to assert our existence. We
are the only creatures on Earth that can make our own image. The human body,
clothed or nude, is the most common subject in art. It gives physical and emotive
form to religious narratives, myths and fables, history paintings and other stories,
portraiture, and anatomical and erotic art.
Artists are thought to have begun drawing from the nude during the Italian
Renaissance. In this period, the junior workshop apprentices posed as part of their
duties. Drawings were usually made from the male nude to avoid offending the church,
and because the female was deemed inferior. Look closely at Renaissance drawings of
the female body and you will see that most are actually young men with minor
adjustments. During this time, artists also tried to define ideal proportions in the body;
Leonardo drew a man within a circle and square, while Durer took his research further—
he sought perfection in the infinitesimal measurement of the body and produced four
volumes of illustrated explanation. Renaissance artists studying anatomy from dissection
were decades ahead of their medical counterparts. Michelangelo attended dissections to
perfect his understanding of surface form, while Leonardo opened the body to see and
discover for himself our physical mechanisms. He even believed he had located the soul
in the pituitary fossa beneath the brain and behind the eyes, giving physical foundation
to the theory that the eves are the windows of the soul.
Life drawing no longer dominates the art school curriculum, but the study of
the body is still essential. These classes are popular around the world, and in San
Francisco, the Bay Area Models' Guild holds a quarterly life-drawing marathon
celebrating the great diversity of human proportion. The body remains at the core of
much Western contemporary art. Strangely, in our privileged and comfortable society,
focus has turned to the vulnerability of flesh: how it can be damaged, diseased, and
surgically rebuilt. Artists now explore the interior of the body with new media and
technology, from video and X-ray to thermal imaging. This chapter addresses issues
that are most commonly faced by beginners attending life-drawing classes. It also looks
at the representation of the body beyond traditional life drawing, explaining ranges
of materials and techniques and showing diversities of thought and purpose in making.
