Warning: If our headline wasn't hint enough for you, this post includes a lot of nudity. A lot.
"Naked, our whole body experiences color," says artist Stuart Ringholt.
"We no longer just look at it, but now have the capacity to feel it also. We can let it wash over us, feel its vibration."
This
is the rather romantic sentiment behind the newest trend in art: naked
museum tours. As if it needs explanation, the practice involves hordes
of nude patrons gazing upon a museum's offerings sans clothing. The
tours usually take place after hours, when the "skyclad" spectators --
that's the official modifier for nude art tour enthusiasts -- can soak
up masterpieces without the prying eyes of more puritanical admirers.
You know, the ones who insist upon wearing clothing.
Words fail to express the trend, really. Why don't you just take a look for yourself?
The above photo was taken at Australia's National Gallery of Art in Canberra, the most recent museum to hop aboard the nude art tour train. In conjunction with its exhibition, "James Turrell: A Retrospective,"
the NGA recruited Melbourne-based Ringholt to host three 50-person nude
tours of the show. All of the tours, hosted in April, sold out within
one day of releasing tickets.
The Huffington Post interviewed
Ringholt last month. He waxed poetic on the dreamy benefits of the
tours. "Why do we not consider the clothed audience as noise?" he
pondered. "We need to consider the reductive approach again and reduce
the audience. Nudity is a solution." Now that he's successfully led
groups of mandatorily nude adults through Turrell's light-soaked
installations, we checked back in for evidence of the happenings. Voila:
Surprisingly, there are more than a couple of institutions willing to
indulge the fantasy of naked art viewing. The Leopold Museum in Austria
obliged fans of the "Nude Men from 1800 to Today" exhibition, hosting
tours in which "nude was the new normal." The El Segundo Museum of Art in California was happy to let the naked body be free, too.
For more on the Turrell tours, check out our full interview with Ringholt here. And bask in the glory of naked art viewing below.
"The term 'skyclad' is used within naturist and nudist communities as a term for being without clothes." -Ringholt
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