The Naked and the Nude

For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.
—from Robert Graves’s The Naked and the Nude

The unclothed male figure is having a resurgence at Art Basel Miami Beach this year, courtesy of artists and galleries from Istanbul to Los Angeles, Salzburg to New York. As in Graves’s famous poem, some of those depicted are merely naked, while others are slyly, or even brazenly, nude. But what unites them is an eye-catching presence in the booths, as well as some unusually fine artistry.

At Galerie Aurel Scheibler, a decidedly nude Jack Pierson work, Andrea (1996), hangs on the outer wall of the joint gallery booth, on sale for $18,000 (part of an edition of 10). The blankly erotic stare of a youth leaning against a wall works as a come-hither look for potential patrons. Gallery rep Rebeccah Blum says, “I’m guessing people hang these works prominently because they’re provocative. You need that at an art fair, to catch people’s attention.”

The showstopper might be Kurt Kauper’s Bobby #3, at Deitch Projects. Currently on reserve for $90,000, the large painting—hung on the outside of the booth, right by entrance A—shows a young, handsome unclothed guy (hockey great Bobby Orr, in fact) with his hand just barely covering his genitals. His slightly self-conscious, winning smile marks him as in the naked camp, and the painting has the monumental quality of a classic Thomas Eakins portrait. (MoMA’s Glenn Lowry was seen checking it out.) Jeffrey Deitch himself was at pains to desexualize the image. “Kurt’s project is classic European painting, and the male nude is part of that,” he said. “It’s not homoerotic. Kurt’s not even gay.” That may be, but there’s definitely a bit of provocation at work here, on the part of both artist and dealer.

An artist who is emphatically gay is Terence Koh, and the Peres Projects booth is devoted solely to his work. Three walls contain about 40 black-and-white photographs each, all taken on the set of Koh’s film God, which is also for sale in the booth. The photos were sold in three groups matching the arrangement on display, at 70,000 Euros per wall. They all sold the first day of the fair, and their buyers will get an eyeful—explicit sex acts abound, and even when the men in the images aren’t having sex, they look like they’re thinking about it. Verdict: Definitely nudes.

Taner Ceylan, another openly gay, somewhat controversial artist, has two works on display in the booth of his Istanbul gallery, Galerist. The stronger of the two is New World (2007), a compositionally forceful image of a young blond man seen from behind as he leans on some pillows. It’s really a head-and-shoulders study, with no private parts visible, and every freckle is lovingly detailed. But he’s still nude, and he sold for $35,000. The smaller work, a painting called Figure with a Horse (1999), was still available at $7,500, though it will surely be snapped up soon. A full-frontal image of a sexy, buff man lying on a couch, one foot up on a toy horse, this work should scream nude—but there’s something innocent in his wide smile, which might make him naked.

For classic nakedness, check out Eric Fischl’s Scene from a Late Paradise: The Drink (2006–7) at Mary Boone. Part of a room of Fischls (all five of which sold just before the fair for a package deal of $10 million), this painting shows a portly man drinking from a can on a crowded beach. It’s about as unerotic as you can get.

Then there’s Antony Gormley’s Another Time, a striking full-size cast-iron sculpture of a standing male that is rusting quite beautifully. Two of these works (from an edition of 5) happen to be in adjacent galleries, at a whopping price differential. Thaddaeus Ropac is selling one for $300,000, or you can cut your cost in half next store at Sean Kelley, where it’s only $150,000.

Maybe the one at Ropac is considered nude, and the sexiness costs extra?

Ted Loos is executive editor of Art+Auction. His wine column "In the Cellar" appears on ARTINFO every other Wednesday.