Artists exploring the influence of new technologies on life drawing are featured in a new show at the Royal Academy in London.
Virtual reality equipment loaded with Google software called Tilt Brush allows artists to “paint” in three dimensions, switching colour or the size of a brush with a click of a handheld paddle. The user can move at will through their virtual work.
The RA show, “From Life”, features the first physical work to be made from art created in Tilt Brush: a large self-portrait bust by the British artist Jonathan Yeo, made up of interwoven strips of bronze.
“The idea is that the strips are the actual brushstrokes themselves,” said Adrian Locke, RA senior curator.
The work of Antony Gormley, creator of the “Angel of the North”, is also on show. Early in his career, Sir Antony’s studies of the human form required him to encase his own body in plaster and wait several hours for the cast to dry.
Today, sophisticated scanning technology enables him to adopt poses that would be impossible to cast in the traditional way. Fed directly into a computer, the captured data can be 3D-printed and cast in physical form.
Life drawing runs through the history of the Royal Academy, Britain’s oldest established fine art school, which was founded by King George III in 1768. In the 18th and 19th century, artists in training were expected to be able to draw engravings and casts of great works before they were allowed into the life drawing class. The semi-circular benches on which Turner and Constable, among others, sat are still present in the heart of the RA building on Piccadilly.
But the Academy observed strict rules about who could attend its life drawing classes. Before 1860, the only women permitted were models. In that year, one Laura Herford submitted her application as “L Herford” and the Academicians assumed she was a man. When she arrived at the school to begin her studies, they examined the rules closely but said they could find no reason why she should not be admitted.
Women continued to be excluded from the life classes, and were relegated instead to drawing casts. This changed in 1893, when they were permitted to draw the male nude, but only if the model was draped with a piece of cloth or drapery for modesty.
Many art schools turned away from life drawing in the experimental 1970s and 1980s, dismissing it as the stale thinking of the past, Mr Locke said. But he added that he has seen more interest in recent years as part of trends for artisanal pursuits.
“It’s a reflection of how people are more interested in craft beer, slow cooking and independent shops,” he said.
In the age of conceptual art, with artists working in fields as varied as light, sound and “found objects”, the RA no longer forces its students to learn life drawing but continues to offer classes in the discipline. As part of the academy’s 250th anniversary celebrations next year, 250 members of the public of all abilities are being invited to share the experience of drawing from life under the eye of an RA guest tutor. Students will be chosen through an online ballot.
“From Life” runs at the Royal Academy from December 11 to March 11 2018.
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