‘venus’-Marco D’Oggiono
‘Nude’ can be said to be a form of art, but is it only when it comes to paintings? Is there anything that seperates it from nude photographs, nude posses or nude gestures? We can’t really determine what nude signifies although I would separate it from Wallpaper magazine covers. All Wallpaper ‘nude’ covers signify sexuality in such a way that they want to attract audiences attention. Most of the times they present female naked bodies and they always turn that naked body into an object. Mostly the ideal spectator of these kind of covers are male, thereofre they want their female figures imagine that there is a stranger looking at them.
In addition to the above, I would suggest this painting as an example to Wallapaper’s previous philosophy and part of the strategy that am suggesting, that it should perhaps reconsider returning to that ideology of covers.
Jacopo_Pontormo (Lady with Lap-Dog)
When there is an animal in a painting, the artist often wants to emphasize on the social status of their owner. The same happens with this painting, the woman dressed up well, appears to be wealthy and she looks like she belongs to a certain social class. I would therefore, identify this painting as an ideal work of art for a reproduction of a Wallpaper cover. You tend to make a variety of assumptions when you look a painting or a photograph, such as you pick up on beauty, the status, the civilization, characteristics that a lifestyle magazine like Wallpaper is all about.
the tailor- Giovanni Battista Moroni
Wallpaper magazine in the past, has done covers with a similar concept as the above painting. I could imagine this painting used as an aspiration for a future Wallpaper cover. The man is looking directly to the spectator and all the domination goes to the head and the eyes. The dark background is contrasted with the colourful clothes the man is wearing and with the black material he is about to cut. It is a strong painting, one of Moroni’s best portraits and I could argue is related to Wallpaper’s context which is all about fashion and lifestyle.
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Painting: ‘Persephone’
Artist: Thomas Hart Benton
Cover: September 2002
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Painting: ‘Battista Sforza, Federico da Montefeltro’
Artist: Piero della Franscesca
Cover: June 2002
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Painting: ‘The morning Walk’
Artist: Thomas Gainsborough
Cover: April 2000
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Originally uploaded by mcharalambous20
Painting: ‘American Gothic’
Artist: Grand Wood
Cover: January/February 1999
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Originally uploaded by mcharalambous20
Painting: ‘La Grande Odalisque’ 1804
Artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Cover: March 2001
The expression-the pose of the model is similar to the woman in the painting. It is an expression of a woman responding to the man whom she imagines looking at her. She is showing her feminity and sexyness.
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Painting: ‘Venus and Mars’ 1445-1510
Artist: Bottichelli
Cover: May 2001
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Painting: ‘Raft of the Medusa’
Artist: Theodore Gericault
Cover: May 2003
