This book accompanies an exhibition, The Nakeds, which is devoted to drawings of the body exposed. The naked body is frequently the physical terrain artists traverse in search of psychological truth. How to represent love, shame, solitude and sexual yearning?

Drawing from the self or life model, from reproduction or the imagination, has provided artists with the freedom to explore desires, fears and fantasies. The Nakeds takes as its starting point selected drawings of the single figure by Egon Schiele. From here, it considers work by artists from the post-war period to the present day.

Essays by the co-curators, artist David Austen and art historian Dr. Gemma Blackshaw, will investigate Schiele’s drawings of the single figure, the contested issue of art and pornography in Vienna around 1900, Schiele as seen through the lens of contemporary female artists, the role of photography and of memory in the realisation of drawings, and a consideration of the artists’ choice of media.

Artist Nicola Tyson contributes Dear Egon Schiele, a new letter in her published series of letters to dead artists.

The Nakeds, exhibition takes place between, 25 September 2014 – 29 November 2014, at Drawing Room, Tannery Arts, London.