Oscar Wilde — ‘Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.’
For the first time in Ireland members of the public will have the opportunity to attend an exhibition of nude art photography in their birthday suit. This will be a unique pioneering occasion for Dublin, as only a handful of cities around the world can claim the same accolade.
The Palais de Tokyo contemporary Art Museum on Avenue President Wilson in the city’s lush 16th arrondissement will become the first gallery in Paris to welcome visitors keen to bare all for a one-off naturists’ day on May 5th 2018.
Also, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts held a special evening tour in 2016 where over 100 patrons checked out the late Robert Mapplethorpe’s work while strutting their stuff in the buff.
Vienna’s prestigious Leopold Museum seemed to be wanting to emulate the scandal effect of erotica art in the past by having naked visitors at its exhibitions in 2013 and 2005.
At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney the naked initiative in 2012 would have striven to help “remove the material barriers between artist and audience (literally),” according to the museum.
Our Dublin exhibition –The Body/Le Corps, as part of the Photo Ireland Festival 2018- is being hosted by Art Nude Ireland (http://artnudeireland.ie/), a collective of photographers and models working to develop the art nude photography genre in Ireland, and Échiquier, an international association representing the trends of photographic art across 35 nations.
The exhibition, which will run from 24th May 2018 to 30th May 2018, consists of 48 images with essentially equal representation of the work of the models and photographers of the Irish and French collectives. The exhibition, by covering the gamut of the genre, will allow viewers to experience the range of imagery that constitutes the canon of art nude photography.
On Tuesday 29th May 2018 from 7pm to 9pm one of the artists will offer a private guided viewing to nude visitors, who will undress inside the premises. No pictures of the attendees will be taken without explicit consent.
As the event is an avant-garde, leading, ground-breaking approach to art appreciation great interest has been shown thus far, particularly amongst the younger generation.
Irish Naturist Association (INA) expects around 80 people – the gallery capacity doesn’t allow for more. INA members will come along and mix freely with other genuine naturists (no exhibitionists, no voyeurs, just non-sexual social nudity for body acceptance and physical/mental freedom).
Refreshments will be available at this free event but early booking essential through Eventbrite or directly through Irish Naturist Association.
At time of writing some free tickets were still remaining:
(Private Nude Viewing of Art Nude Ireland Photography Exhibition)
Venue: In-Spire Gallery, 56 Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin 1
