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"Adam reveals a history of the male in art of every medium. This book shows how the heroic nude traversed the centuries from ancient Rome to the "peplum" movies of the 1950s, how a tamer, feminized male made his appearance in the flirtatious paintings of the French rococo, how the Christian shame of nudity was overcome in representations of the crucifixion or images of martyrdom, and how the baroque artists exaggerated male characteristics to create super-males. Work of artists as diverse as Leonardo Fragonard, Beardsley, Nadar and Weber - and the historic contributions of men from David Bowie to Arnold Schwartzenegger to the Nuba warrior - combine to make Adam a fascinating and entertaining trip through the history of art and sexuality."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
User reviews
The book is lavishly illustrates throughout with around 100 full-colour and well over 60 mono or duo-tones. Many of the pictures are full-page and some double-page. They include painting, drawing, sculpture and pottery, and photography, some subtle others blatantly provocative. However while the illustrations are well captioned and usually accompanied by a brief comment, their seems to be little direct relationship between them and the text, many artists mentioned in the text are not illustrated, and many illustrated are not mentioned in the text; it as if there are two separate books here.
The artists illustrated include David Hockney, Michael Leonard, Andy Warhol, Gilbert and George, Lucien Freud, De Chirico, Picasso, Delmas Howe, Tom of Finland, Tom Binachi, Roberto Rincon, Tony Butcher and many more - but for example no Robert Mapplethorpe who is mention in the text.
Adam, the Male Figure in Art make an interesting read, and an equally interesting visual experience, it is unfortunate that there is little relationship between the two other than the subject matter.