Nudity As Art, Distinct and Progressive
We talk about Nude Art, but many creatives say it's business and many fans call it excitement. Between the lines I sometimes read doubts about the art character. That's nothing special. The new Bond movie is called action movie, excitement or blockbuster event. But when it comes to art, some people even wrinkle their noses. All the while the definition is clear! While 'art' originally was a painting, a sculpture and architecture, today we find listed among 'the arts' theater, dance, music, film and... performing arts! So it's clear that a striptease, a masturbation and a character performance must be seen as artful portrayals! And a striptease is historically even much more classic and iconic than James Bond will ever be! For photography it's not that obvious. We can find it as a sub-category of film making, or we go to another sub-category, the 'fine arts', defined as focusing on aesthetics and beauty! So there can be no doubt that eroticism is fundamentally represented in the categories of artful creations!
An even more essential question is the autonomous, self-contained character of Erotic Art in the internet, as we know it for 20 years! Is it its own, vivid art form? Or is it just a chapter in the larger books of erotic depiction? My own angle is very clear in this point. While the beginning at the end of the 90s with collections of about 40 random nude photos of varying models in small folders stands in the tradition of classic print mediums going online, the years between 2000 and 2005 made the crucial development! While movie clips kept up with the characteristics of late night clips on TV or solo scenes on DVD, the photo sets took a sensational direction! They became a collection of 50 to 200 and more photos with models performing a storyline! In the beginning it was very easy: 'beautiful woman dressed' changing into 'beautiful woman naked'! It's striptease as we know it for hundreds of years! But a continuing photo set demands a very special kind of attention from the audience! There is something happening between 2 photos which is completely to be imagined in the minds of the observer! This was a totally new kind of artful creation (in differentiation to a collection of movie stills!) and developed to a very complex and distinct narrative form! It was THIS invention, which made Nude Art in the internet forever unique and self-contained as a form of art. And very lasting! And extremely fascinating! Full of fantasy, wild, sexy as hell as we never saw it before!
So we have Nude Art as a self-contained form of art now! But we live in 2021! Is Nude Art developing? Vivid? Does it have something which still finds new fans? Has Nude Art in the 20s an up-to-date message for today's audience? Or are the fans of 2000 growing older and older by watching an unvarying and repetitive passing fad? I came here in 2012! So things can't be too bad. And they aren't! When photo sets focused on one model only, acting in a continuing series of photos, some models became very famous stars! Most fans know the names of the models even more than the names of the photographers! The quality and complexity grew during the late 00s and finally the second magic event took place! The growing success attracted a new generation of models with their own inspiration, their own energy and enough ideas to build up on what was established before! They saw what was made before and said: "Yay! Great! I want to do that, too! And I want to do it MY way!" Milena Angel was one of that group! Emily Bloom was another! And many more, whose most fantastic feature is, next to the brilliant, wild, inventive and innovative content they made, to still belong to the highest rated top models today. Many of them are still active! They really made it. They even defined Nude Art of the 10s! Young, wild, fresh and naughty. Even shockingly rebellious at times. And personal! That is the crucial point! "I'm not a 'beautiful woman getting naked'! I'm Milena Angel getting naked. Incomparable to any others!" And it worked! THIS art concept (the personal approach!) was a missing element! This was the coming of models who had their own and individual creative vision. The time of the Nude Art Megastars came to a climax with these wild, young talents. They came to us between 2008 and 2012 and their impact made the years up to 2015 the Golden Years of Nude Art in the internet! (This Golden Era did not end because they lost their inspiration. They are still doing great stuff! But regrettably some other decisions were made on other parts of the field, which influence the world of Nude Art until today.)
The 10s generation of models all found - often independently - their own way to create Erotic Art, not only different from what I call the mainstream content, but also different from each other! They founded the real diversity of internet eroticism, with new ways to go, be it by inventing new styles, adapting new techniques to their needs, finding new themes of acting or be it by organizing online Live Shows as arousing and unmissable events, while many traditional sites became the guardians of the past!
In the best of worlds new talents arrive regularly. And indeed new models have come, but their impact wasn't that strong and even more not a lasting one. One reason may be, that those creators of the early 10s I talked about are VERY good! When there is something to discover, they discover it. When they want to do something new, they are highly inspired to find something, to give us new perspectives, visuals and themes. Also in regards of beauty it's next to impossible to hold a candle to them. But maybe there's another reason! Maybe business structures prevent new models to stay long enough? Maybe those structures prevent models from adding their own creativity to the pool of inspiration? Just a guess.
Conclusion: internet Erotic Art IS a self-contained form of art and it's very much progressing and vivid thanks to a group of very inspired talents, who are active for a very long time already (which is not the least reason that they could have such a lasting impact on the quality and diversity of Erotic Art). Different perspectives, maybe even new and modern ways of creativity, fresh ideas will make Nude Art attractive for a new audience! And we, the audience, have to make a decision to support those creatives on their very own grounds, platforms and sites (by joining them!), or to grow older and older by watching an unvarying and repetitive passing fad called mainstream.