Nude Drawing Photo NN 1947
Nude Drawing, Photo: NN, 1947

Drawing

This course is only offered for enrolled students of Städelschule and is designed both for beginners and trained artists. The dates are given in the syllabus.

Progress

To warm up there are a number of five-minute sittings featuring dynamic positions that allow animated, expressive and free drawing.

Longer positions are then drawn that are related to the tradition of figurative representation (e.g. contrapposto, figura serpentinata etc.). Here we reference existing works of art or famous artists who have explored life drawing and the figure.

In the concluding phase one or two long positions are adopted where course participants have the opportunity to investigate the model more “deeply” (e.g. including the portrait) or applying different graphical means of expression.

Variations are possible depending on the nature of the models and their repertoire of expressions. It is desirable to explore the individual features of each model. Occasionally the models keep on all or some of their everyday clothes. Here the boundaries between nude, naked and figurative or between abstract and representational drawing are explored.

Concept

The course offers life drawing both as it is traditionally understood and in joyful, free experimentation with new positions, new expressions and individualistic solutions. This leads course participants to self-discovery in drawing. The approach is undogmatic, open and adapted to the needs of individual students. No particular style is preferred or imposed. It is intended for each artist to discover and develop his or her own interpretation.

Background

For a deeper understanding of western art and culture it is important to explore the nude or the human figure. This began in antiquity and developed through the Renaissance and the classical modern era all the way to contemporary art. Graphical learning and exploration of the human figure – with its anatomy, its proportions and its eroticism as well as its means of expression in relation to the world around it – has always been very important for artists of any period. The nude and the human figure as an aesthetic phenomenon is still topical and of central importance today in everyday culture, film, media and advertising.

Contact

Aula
Dürerstraße 10
60596 Frankfurt am Main
studierendensekretariat@staedelschule.de