Nude drawings always come with a heavy whiff of old perv; a wafting aroma of thigh-rubbing horniness that overwhelms the art. But when Florence Peake does it, the work takes on a whole new scent. She makes these drawings of naked human bodies as part of choreographed performances, the paper laid out on the floor as she moves around it. Essentially, they’re performative drawings, which sounds like absolute nonsense, but it makes a difference.
The bodies captured on these pastel-coloured sheets are exaggerated: big fleshy heaps, unctuous curves, swoops of legs, bums and tums. They’re erotic and sensual, but there’s something more going on. Nude drawings are usually such dead things – a motionless model, a motionless artist – but Peake’s drawings are full of the movement they were created with. They’re alive, they feel like the moment they were made. They’re bodies in motion, captured blurringly, fleetingly, quickly.
Huh, how about that: nude drawings that don’t stink.
@eddyfrankel
