Six Male Nudes c. 1879 - 1880

Editor: Here we have Matthijs Maris' "Six Male Nudes," created around 1879-1880. It's a pencil drawing with a clear focus on the human form. There’s a sense of movement, yet it also feels very academic and controlled. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: Well, immediately, I’m drawn to the materiality of this drawing. It’s pencil on paper, a readily available medium, yet used here to explore the academic study of the nude male figure. But I want to ask, does the academic approach undermine its potential as a study of labor, both the artist's labor and the figures’ suggested exertion? Editor: That's interesting! I hadn’t considered the element of labor beyond the artistic process. The figures are in dynamic poses, suggesting some form of physical exertion... maybe it's also the viewer who is expending energy as they strain to clearly perceive each gesture or pose! Curator: Exactly! Maris is working within the confines of academic training but think about the socio-economic implications of this piece. Who has access to art materials, to models, to art instruction? What does it mean to portray working-class bodies through the filter of idealized form? Are we witnessing a subtle negotiation of class through materiality and subject? Editor: I see your point. The drawing exists because of access – access to resources and artistic training. And the act of depicting these nude figures, who might otherwise be engaged in manual labor, frames them within a certain cultural and economic viewpoint. Curator: Consider the cheap and easily available material such as a pencil to create this kind of study, where he depicts a form so charged through history and high-art production... it sort of democratizes it. So, what began as an academic study could now be seen as an interesting social experiment? Editor: That completely changes my perspective. I initially saw it as a formal study of the nude, but it's more complex when we consider the material conditions and socio-economic context surrounding its creation. Curator: Right? It invites questions about artistic training and the representation of the body within different social strata, making a seemingly simple sketch rather charged! Editor: Absolutely! I'm now considering art's potential as a tool for understanding economic forces.