The model wife /

Even now as we enter the millennium, the nineteenth-century myth of the artist as a lonely genius in pursuit of transcendent visions somehow still lingers in our imagination. The fact, however, is that art is also an occupation--an occupation that requires work space (the studio), collaboration (with models), and the support, sometimes even indulgence, of family and friends. Fortunately, the down-to-earth social and material aspects of art have now been nicely captured in three new books. Artists at Work takes the readers inside the studios of some of the most famous contemporary artists. The late, great award-winning photographer Seidner took the photographs over a period of 20 years. Each short chapter offers the readers a glimpse into an artist's work space as well as insight into the way the artist approaches art. Is it any wonder that Roy Lichtenstein creates his meticulous paintings in an immaculately clean studio? Or that shock artist Cindy Sherman's studio feels like a tempest in a sea of broken dolls and mannequins? Seidner also writes charmingly of his personal friendship with each artist, lending a certain warmth to the photographs in the collection. Of all the "props" that ever occupied the Victorian artist's studio, the most controversial was, in fact, the nude model. According to Postle and Vaughan, it was during the nineteenth century that models who had once posed anonymously for life classes (and were regarded as mere studio apparatus) began to take on personality and a new eroticism. However, the kind of life classes held by William Etty at the Royal Academy in the early nineteenth century, which were intended as a serious practice for artists, only became firmly established in the early twentieth century (particularly in the Slade School of Art). The book demonstrates how the social and cultural forces that occurred between 1840 and 1940 changed the role of the artist in British society and, ultimately, elevated the status of the artist's model from passive subject to inspiration, muse, ideal, and even lover. Some of the model-muses have also turned out to be the artist's best companion--a marriage partner. The Model Wife gathers together the works of nine famous photographers of the twentieth century, all of whom had made their wives their photographic subjects over the years. There are, for example, Alfred Stieglitz's photographs of Georgia O'Keeffe, and Baron Adolph de Meyer's photographs of Baroness Olga de Meyer. Some of the photographs capture a sensuality and eroticism that one knows only between lovers; others take on decidedly familial overtones, with the model-wife holding a baby or standing beside her mother. The book serves as a moving testament to the complexity of marriage, especially when husband and wife are involved also as artist and muse. --Veronica Scrol

As director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Ollman has organized an upcoming exhibition centered on male photographers' images of their wives. The nine couples presented in this accompanying catalog had long-term, intimate relationships wherein the wife was both collaborator and muse. The subjects span the 20th century and include such well-known figures as Adolph de Meyer, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Harry Callahan, as well as less familiar artists. Utilizing excerpts from interviews and letters, Ollman's introductory overview and lively essays that precede each artist's portfolio reveal a remarkable linkage among the photographers and highlight the complex effects of love and marriage on art. About 150 duotone and five color plates, beautifully displayed, capture a vulnerability, trust, and willingness to be photographed shared by the wives. In the majority of the photographs, the wife appears alone, often unabashedly nude, and a sublime tenderness becomes apparent. Recommended for public and academic collections.--Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.