Many of the portraits included in The Naked Portrait are of celebrities. Celebrities epitomise the art of revealing sides of themselves and presenting a ‘version’ of themselves to the public, so a truly ‘naked’ portrait of a celebrity can be incredibly revealing.
When we see, for example, Polly Borland’s portrait of Germaine Greer, it does seem as though her public persona has disappeared along with her clothes. Other works emphasise this sense through the stance of the portrait’s subject; in works featuring Dustin Hoffman and Linford Christie, for example, each man gazes downwards away from the camera which, combined with their nakedness, presents them as ordinary men rather than extraordinary men.
Howson’s portrait of Madonna, although painted rather than photographed, still seems to present her realistically rather than flatteringly. Her body shape is twisted, contorted, at times even skeletal; her eyes are half-closed; the base of her body is in shadow, emphasises the strange shape of her body.
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