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Message
Posted
Well that reassuring, the rat is alive !Technically with the base of the sofa the rat is the only darker colour in the painting. The predominent is ochre. To me it is the interesting statement.Now who can explain why the sitter looks stressed, worried, frightened is a rat is such a nice pet !
Posted
Freud's painting skills impressed me so much i used one of his portraits for copying to help learn an aspect of the discipline. Ratty suggests some information about the model's possible character, something portraiturists know viewers appreciate. The few rat keepers i have known have been very single, rather useful to such a sexual theme. Art or porn ? I would consider it both and so much the better for being so but guess Freud will be delighted that the prevailing legal view seems to be that most children in this country are free to appreciate it publicly.
Posted
Thank you everyone who has contributed... I have just had a lovely giggle reading all of your replys. I think the forum has been rather quiet of late, varying reasons ,holidays , illness etc. Anyone else going to contribute to this??? . Maybe someone else will post a painting for discussion, maybe it could be a daily "happening"..and God bless you all said Tiny Tim...... nite nite. . S.
Posted
What a painting...on one hand a beautiful executed work of art...and the other of innate suffering...to me the man is either suffering or dead...look at the eyes...the rat at first I thought a phallic symbol but the men would disagree!!!! I would actually have it hanging perhaps behind closed doors, in a studio...life in the raw...it's funny how we will recoil from the male nude in all of it's glory but not the female...conditioning perhaps
The rat I don't think is dead but then I was looking more at the face of the man because I thought it was him who was dead
Rats are wonderful creatures and make good pets but I wouldn't have one...I know many people who do keep them as pets and have had one snuggled into my neck...AWW
Well done Blue a great painting which will bring much comment.
Aqua I love David too...both worthy of good debate
Posted
I think we should all thank Blue for livening up what was becoming a very twee little forum. You've chosen well Blue. This what I call a marmite picture. You either love it or loath it. I can appreciate the mastery of the painting. No doubting that. But I still don't like his style. PS I don't like marmite either.
Posted
It is the kind of painting which commands many questions.I made some research and I have found one from www.tate.org.ukMan with Rat 1977 (Art Gallery of of Western Australia) depicts a red-haired man lounging naked, legs splayed on a sofa and genitals almost painfully exposed, holding a black rat, the tail of which is draped sensuously over his thigh. Freud considers his paintings of nudes to be as much portraits as they refer to thetraditional genreof the nude and it is significant that he chose to paint Bowery naked rather than in the costumes through which Bowery expressed his public identity. Rather than glorifying the body, Freud’s ‘realistic’ representation presents it in all the vulnerability of nakedness, emphasising his subject’s humanity. Man with Rat 1977 (Art Gallery of Western Australia) Who is the lucky one ? Patsy can try to have a good look at his painting.
Posted
I`m not sure that knowing what the painter meant by it is necessary for any work, because it`s about our personal response. Great art engages on many levels in the same way great myths do.
I look at this work and think of rent boys and wasted lives in seedy squats, I compare the heavy strokes to Van Gogh, with echoes of psychosis and hallucination, with the male friend...etc etc. You will look at it and get something else entirely. The two ladies in the original post got more than they could cope with. Which is fine - no-one ever said art had to be nice.
Posted
How lucky am I...our class is having an excursion to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in a few weeks...it is on a Saturday so I was torn...but not now...Hubby will take me and my friend who is 85 with mild Parkinsons and a wicked sense of humour...I just know she would appreciate this painting...I'm not so sure of some of the others but I shall make a point and tell you all about it...I think there must be something wrong with me but I love this painting...it is stark reality...I will make Lucian Freud my first study in the quest to relearn much of my forgotten knowledge about art and artists...I hope this brings more comment...I love the rat Robert but as a Phallic symbol a bit of an insult :D