Private view: Five celebrities who went nude for art

viii December 2017

Naked models take e'er featured in art, and celebrities take e'er posed for pictures - it'south no surprise that at that place is some level of crossover. As a new Royal Academy exhibition celebrates the exercise of life drawing, we look at the famous figures with naked portraits of their own.

Alarm: This article contains several images of artwork featuring uncensored nudity.

1. Iggy Pop life class

Installation View of From Life at the Purple University of Arts, London, showing Jeremy Deller's Iggy Pop Life Grade (2016) | © Brooklyn Museum, Photographer credit: David Parry

The American singer-songwriter known equally the "Godfather of Punk" is no stranger to going topless when performing on stage, simply he went 1 step further in 2016 past becoming the discipline of a special life drawing class at the New York Academy of Fine art.

Based on an idea by creative person Jeremy Deller, 20-one artists from all walks of life participated in Iggy Pop Life Grade to written report and sketch the naked form of the star, who adopted a variety of poses.

"For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the subject of a life course," said Deller. "His body is central to an understanding of rock music and its identify within American culture. His trunk has witnessed much and should be documented."

Iggy Popular himself praised the 'very nice vibe' in the room, and had a novel style to stave off boredom during the xx-minute sittings: "The way I got through it, without going crazy, was listening to my ain songs from my albums in my head," the vocalizer said.

The sketches created during the class were then exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, and will be on display every bit part of the From Life exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts from 11 December 2017.

Iggy Pop posing for New York artists on February 21, 2016 | Photo: Elena Olivo, © Brooklyn Museum

2. Lady Gaga sketched by Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett (left) | Lady Gaga, charcoal on paper, 18" x 24", © 2011 Benedetto/Bennett (right)

Not merely content with his music career, his 19 Grammy awards and sales of over fifty million records worldwide, jazz singer Tony Bennett is also a successful painter.

Working under his real name Anthony Benedetto, he has exhibited in several galleries and even been commissioned by the United Nations. Having begun as a child, he claims to paint or sketch every solar day, oftentimes when on bout.

In 2011 Bennett and pop icon Lady Gaga collaborated on a duet of jazz standard The Lady Is A Tramp, and that same year the pair were photographed past Annie Liebowitz for Vanity Fair. The shoot featured Gaga posing naked in presumably Bennett'southward creative person studio, with this piece of artwork appearing in frame.

Several accessories from the shoot were auctioned off for charity including the signed sketch, which was sold for $30,000. All proceeds went to two charities associated with the celebrities: Tony Bennett's Exploring the Arts organisation; and Lady Gaga's Built-in This Way Foundation.

iii. Sir Sean Connery before he was famous

In 2011 a nude oil painting of Sean Connery from 1951 was discovered in the collection of Selkirk artist Rab Webster after his death at the age of 83.

At that place were ever lots of girls in the classes because they were attracted past his Adonis-like physique.

Webster had been a educatee at the Edinburgh Higher of Art when he painted information technology; who would have thought the handsome figure posing for his life drawing grade would go along to become James Bond?

Before the 1962 film Dr. No shot Connery to worldwide superstardom, Edinburgh-born Connery would frequently earn extra cash as a life model for the Edinburgh College of Art, taking advantage of the bodybuilder muscles he'd developed to impress the local immature women.

Richard Demarco, a local creative person and promoter, was amidst those who painted Connery equally a boyfriend, and described his popularity with the ladies at the time: "When he modelled there were always lots of girls in the classes because they were attracted by his Adonis-like physique. He was a swell inspiration for whatever artist and was amazing to paint and draw."

Somewhen the beefy young Connery would be encouraged to enter the Mr. Universe competition, during which he caught the eye of a local casting director who gave him his start acting function in a London production of S Pacific.

Image: Sean Connery portrait by Rab Webster (oil on canvas, 1951)

iv. Lindsay Lohan commissions nude street art

In 2014, the American actress and singer was actualization in a production of David Mamet play Terminate-The-Plow at the Playhouse Theatre; it was while living in London at this fourth dimension she learned of local street artist Pegasus after seeing his portrait of pop-star Kylie Minogue.

Both figures were huge fans of argent screen icon Marilyn Monroe, with Pegasus depicting her in many of his pieces and with Lohan having often imitated her poses, including in 2011 when she recreated Monroe's 1949 series of nude photographs against red velvet for Playboy.

Lohan must have thought Pegasus was the perfect option to adjust one of these Playboy centrefolds and commissioned him to create the pictured artwork. Conspicuously enamoured with the portrait, Lohan posted on Instagram to show the work proudly displayed on her dressing room wall at the Playhouse.

Lindsey Lohan based her pose on an iconic Marilyn Monroe photograph | Image © Pegasus

v. Kate Moss oil painting by Lucian Freud

British painter Lucian Freud was one of the foremost portraitists of the 20th century, and was especially known for his realistically detailed nudes, which sometimes required models to pose every evening for months at a time.

I went to his house and he started the nude painting that night. Couldn't say no to Lucian.

The painter met and befriended model Kate Moss in 2002 afterwards she mentioned that he was the person she would most similar to meet. Later they went for dinner, he soon began painting her in the nude when she was significant with her daughter, Lila Grace. The painting took nine months to consummate and was later sold for £3.9m at auction.

However, this was not the but creative collaboration between the 2. Moss was excited to learn that when Freud had been a young man in the navy, he used to do homemade tattoos using permanent ink and a scalpel for his boyfriend sailors.

He after gave her a similar tattoo of ii tiny swallows at the base of her spine using the aforementioned method – making Kate Moss both subject field and canvas for one of Britain's greatest artists.

Image: Kate Moss, 2002 (oil on sail), Freud, Lucian (1922-2011) / Private Collection / © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images

The From Life exhibition runs from xi December 2017 - eleven March 2018 at the Royal University of Arts in London. For further information delight see their website.

More on life cartoon

More from Front Row

More from BBC Arts