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Update, December 2022: I am gradually uploading some of the articles and essays I have written to my ResearchGate profile.
© Dominic Blake 2016-2023 | dominicblakeartist@gmail.com | London
Chapter, 'Meditations on Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Charleston', within pamphlet due for publication September 2024 by Night Bird Press. To be stocked in Charleston's bookshop and the London Review Bookshop.
Chapter, 'Meditations on Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Charleston', within pamphlet due for publication September 2024 by Night Bird Press. To be stocked in Charleston's bookshop and the London Review Bookshop.
Lecture and Panel discussion | Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 22.04.24
22.04.22 | 18:30-20:30: The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
Join art writer and theorist Dominic Blake and award-winning artist @katewilsonarts as they explore the art historical relationship between the muse and the artist in response to Pasquarosa’s early career.
Drawing parallels between Pasquarosa’s experience as life model and sitter for Nino Bertoletti, they will reflect on the connection between nudity, hierarchy and cultural norms in an effort to understand how these factors may generate societal preconceptions of the model-artist relationship. Through challenging these ideas, it might be possible to arrive at a greater degree of equality between the roles.
Blake and Wilson will deliver two short lectures during the first half of the evening, followed by a panel discussion. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and/or add comments within an open Q&A during the second half.
Dominic Blake is a London based art writer and theorist whose work concerning the life model is located at the core of an emerging art historical debate. His ongoing lecture series ‘Are Life Models Artists?’ has featured at The National Gallery, University of Cambridge and Royal College of Art. A life model at the Royal Academy of Arts and Estorick Collection, he is currently completing a translation of his lecture series into a monograph due for publication in 2025 with generous assistance from The Charleston Trust.
Kate Wilson is an artist living in South London who paints the familiar objects of her daily landscape. She pays particular attention to things that are overlooked, thrown away or abandoned. A prize winner at the RA Summer exhibition and the Wells Contemporary in 2023, Kate was shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize in 2022, longlisted for the John Moores in 2020/23 and the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2022/23. Her book “Drawing and Painting, Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists” is published by Thames and Hudson.
Access requirements | The talk is fully accessible.
The event will start at 18.30 with doors opening at 18.15.
Standard Admission £14 / Estorick Collection Members and Full-time Students £11
Join art writer and theorist Dominic Blake and award-winning artist @katewilsonarts as they explore the art historical relationship between the muse and the artist in response to Pasquarosa’s early career.
Drawing parallels between Pasquarosa’s experience as life model and sitter for Nino Bertoletti, they will reflect on the connection between nudity, hierarchy and cultural norms in an effort to understand how these factors may generate societal preconceptions of the model-artist relationship. Through challenging these ideas, it might be possible to arrive at a greater degree of equality between the roles.
Blake and Wilson will deliver two short lectures during the first half of the evening, followed by a panel discussion. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and/or add comments within an open Q&A during the second half.
Dominic Blake is a London based art writer and theorist whose work concerning the life model is located at the core of an emerging art historical debate. His ongoing lecture series ‘Are Life Models Artists?’ has featured at The National Gallery, University of Cambridge and Royal College of Art. A life model at the Royal Academy of Arts and Estorick Collection, he is currently completing a translation of his lecture series into a monograph due for publication in 2025 with generous assistance from The Charleston Trust.
Kate Wilson is an artist living in South London who paints the familiar objects of her daily landscape. She pays particular attention to things that are overlooked, thrown away or abandoned. A prize winner at the RA Summer exhibition and the Wells Contemporary in 2023, Kate was shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize in 2022, longlisted for the John Moores in 2020/23 and the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2022/23. Her book “Drawing and Painting, Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists” is published by Thames and Hudson.
Access requirements | The talk is fully accessible.
The event will start at 18.30 with doors opening at 18.15.
Standard Admission £14 / Estorick Collection Members and Full-time Students £11
Lecture | Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge | February 2023.
Lecture | Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge | February 2023.
Lecture | Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge | February 2023.
The National Gallery | Lecture, 'Symbiosis through Sitting', January 2023
The National Gallery: 'Symbiosis through Sitting', mini-lecture followed by a conversation with Matthew Morgan, director of Turner's House Museum. Part of the programme of events for the NG's Freud exhibition. 30 Jan 2023.
The National Gallery | Lecture, 'Symbiosis through Sitting', January 2023
The National Gallery: 'Symbiosis through Sitting', mini-lecture followed by a conversation with Matthew Morgan, director of Turner's House Museum. Part of the programme of events for the NG's Freud exhibition. 30 Jan 2023.
Paper for presentation at BSA Symposium: 'Revaluing the Life Model in Art Practice' at the Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Kent, May 2022. I am co-curator of the symposium.
Abstract
The role of the life model is inextricably linked with the Western academic traditions of fine art associated with the emergence of the art academies during the Renaissance, popularised in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in Paris and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The academies have become the filters via which the life model is interpreted and understood, shaping contemporary attitudes and giving rise to cultural paradigms suggesting that models are servants, or mercenary drawing instruments. By extension, life models have been thought of as muses, providing the inspiration for artists to create their work via their emotional engagement. However, life modelling is a complex, skilled practice, models fulfilling myriad roles beyond those defined by these paradigms. Given the determining factors of motivation and context, modelling might itself become a physical mode of artistic practice within which the model uses their body as their medium to create works of art within the realm of performance art or contemporary dance. These self-choreographed or spontaneous artistic acts may occur either in creative symbiosis with other artists, or beyond the studio / life room environment in alternate contexts including museum and gallery settings. Differing contexts may foster new perceptual frameworks of understanding on the part of the viewer; removed from previous paradigmatic shackles, the models artistry may be unambiguously revealed.
© Dominic Blake, 2016-22
The role of the life model is inextricably linked with the Western academic traditions of fine art associated with the emergence of the art academies during the Renaissance, popularised in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in Paris and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The academies have become the filters via which the life model is interpreted and understood, shaping contemporary attitudes and giving rise to cultural paradigms suggesting that models are servants, or mercenary drawing instruments. By extension, life models have been thought of as muses, providing the inspiration for artists to create their work via their emotional engagement. However, life modelling is a complex, skilled practice, models fulfilling myriad roles beyond those defined by these paradigms. Given the determining factors of motivation and context, modelling might itself become a physical mode of artistic practice within which the model uses their body as their medium to create works of art within the realm of performance art or contemporary dance. These self-choreographed or spontaneous artistic acts may occur either in creative symbiosis with other artists, or beyond the studio / life room environment in alternate contexts including museum and gallery settings. Differing contexts may foster new perceptual frameworks of understanding on the part of the viewer; removed from previous paradigmatic shackles, the models artistry may be unambiguously revealed.
© Dominic Blake, 2016-22
RCA | Lecture: 'Are Life Models Artists?', 23.02.22.
In 2016, I conceived a novel art historical theory grounded in my experiences working as a life model at the Royal Academy of Arts, which I wrote about and discussed in a lecture series, 'Are Life Models Artists?', at venues including The National Gallery, the Royal College of Art and Mall Galleries.
Examining life modelling through art historical and experiential perspectives I explore the existential realms within which the practice exists. While not claiming in an absolute sense that modelling is an art form, I advocate a more enlightened perspective according to which it might become one within the realm of performance art or dance according to the determining factors of motivation and context. 'Are Life Models Artists?' is an ongoing enquiry.
In preparation for my lectures I interviewed the Directors of several major galleries, museums and private collections, practicing artists, Life Models and curators to gain their insight into the question I posed. Included within the group of interviewees was Christopher Le Brun, Past President, Royal Academy of Arts; Simon Martin, Director, Pallant House Gallery; Jo Baring, Director, The Ingram Collection; Lara Wardle, Director Curator, The Jerwood Collection; Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A Department of Word and Image; JJ Delvine, Artist (BP Portrait Award 2018, 2011, 2006); Desmond Healy, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; John Close, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; Suzon Lagarde, Portrait Artist and Life Model; Robin George, Life Model.
I also worked with Dr Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research at The Charleston Trust and am grateful to Eileen Cooper (RA) and Professor Jean Wainwright for their enduring support.
The Royal College of Art invited me to deliver a public lecture, the fifth in my series, in February 2022.
Examining life modelling through art historical and experiential perspectives I explore the existential realms within which the practice exists. While not claiming in an absolute sense that modelling is an art form, I advocate a more enlightened perspective according to which it might become one within the realm of performance art or dance according to the determining factors of motivation and context. 'Are Life Models Artists?' is an ongoing enquiry.
In preparation for my lectures I interviewed the Directors of several major galleries, museums and private collections, practicing artists, Life Models and curators to gain their insight into the question I posed. Included within the group of interviewees was Christopher Le Brun, Past President, Royal Academy of Arts; Simon Martin, Director, Pallant House Gallery; Jo Baring, Director, The Ingram Collection; Lara Wardle, Director Curator, The Jerwood Collection; Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A Department of Word and Image; JJ Delvine, Artist (BP Portrait Award 2018, 2011, 2006); Desmond Healy, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; John Close, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; Suzon Lagarde, Portrait Artist and Life Model; Robin George, Life Model.
I also worked with Dr Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research at The Charleston Trust and am grateful to Eileen Cooper (RA) and Professor Jean Wainwright for their enduring support.
The Royal College of Art invited me to deliver a public lecture, the fifth in my series, in February 2022.
Charleston Press No. 4 | Chapter: 'Model and Artist in One Body', 2021.
Charleston: 'Model and Artist in one body'; chapter co-authored with Dr. Aurélie Debaene within Charleston Press No. 4, a journal inspired by the 2021 Charleston exhibitions Nina Hamnett and Lisa Brice. Commissioned by The Charleston Trust.
Aesthetica Magazine, August 2021, Contributing writer: 'Art on the Airwaves'
The National Gallery | Lecture: 'Are Life Models Artists?', 2019.
In 2016, I conceived a novel art historical theory grounded in my experiences working as a life model at the Royal Academy of Arts, which I wrote about and discussed in a lecture series, 'Are Life Models Artists?', at venues including The National Gallery, the Royal College of Art and Mall Galleries.
Examining life modelling through art historical and experiential perspectives I explore the existential realms within which the practice exists. While not claiming in an absolute sense that modelling is an art form, I advocate a more enlightened perspective according to which it might become one within the realm of performance art or dance according to the determining factors of motivation and context. 'Are Life Models Artists?' is an ongoing enquiry.
In preparation for my lectures I interviewed the Directors of several major galleries, museums and private collections, practicing artists, Life Models and curators to gain their insight into the question I posed. Included within the group of interviewees was Christopher Le Brun, Past President, Royal Academy of Arts; Simon Martin, Director, Pallant House Gallery; Jo Baring, Director, The Ingram Collection; Lara Wardle, Director Curator, The Jerwood Collection; Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A Department of Word and Image; JJ Delvine, Artist (BP Portrait Award 2018, 2011, 2006); Desmond Healy, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; John Close, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; Suzon Lagarde, Portrait Artist and Life Model; Robin George, Life Model.
I also worked with Dr. Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research at The Charleston Trust, and am indebted to Eileen Cooper (RA) and Professor Jean Wainwright for their enduring support.
Examining life modelling through art historical and experiential perspectives I explore the existential realms within which the practice exists. While not claiming in an absolute sense that modelling is an art form, I advocate a more enlightened perspective according to which it might become one within the realm of performance art or dance according to the determining factors of motivation and context. 'Are Life Models Artists?' is an ongoing enquiry.
In preparation for my lectures I interviewed the Directors of several major galleries, museums and private collections, practicing artists, Life Models and curators to gain their insight into the question I posed. Included within the group of interviewees was Christopher Le Brun, Past President, Royal Academy of Arts; Simon Martin, Director, Pallant House Gallery; Jo Baring, Director, The Ingram Collection; Lara Wardle, Director Curator, The Jerwood Collection; Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A Department of Word and Image; JJ Delvine, Artist (BP Portrait Award 2018, 2011, 2006); Desmond Healy, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; John Close, Artist and Fine Art Tutor; Suzon Lagarde, Portrait Artist and Life Model; Robin George, Life Model.
I also worked with Dr. Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research at The Charleston Trust, and am indebted to Eileen Cooper (RA) and Professor Jean Wainwright for their enduring support.
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