Standing Female Nude

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Born in Glasgow in 1955, Carol Ann Duffy was brought up in Staffordshire and studied philosophy at the University of Liverpool, where she was active in the city’s underground poetry scene in the 1970s. Her first full-length collection Standing Female Nude in 1985 was a landmark, forging an anti-establishment voice with colloquial lyricism. Duffy reached a wider audience with The World’s Wife (1999), a series of witty dramatic monologues spoken by women from fairy tales and myths, and the women usually air-brushed from history, such as Mrs Midas and Mrs Darwin. Her output has also included a large body of writing for children. One way would be to talk about the difference between the model and the painter. The painter is more concerned with abstract, artistic notions, like "volume, space." Meanwhile, the model is focused on her "next meal." In “Standing Female Nude” Duffy invents the persona of a ‘river whore’ — the artist’s title and subject of the painting — with a cynical outlook on the world. She questions the value of art and the motives of the artist. It also highlights the double standard. She is regarded by society as an immoral woman who sells her body, while he is regarded as a ‘genius’. Duffy’s more disturbing poems also include those such as ‘Education for Leisure’ ( Standing Female Nude) and ‘Psychopath’ ( Selling Manhattan) which are written in the voices of society’s dropouts, outsiders and villains. She gives us insight into such disturbed minds, and into the society that has let them down, without in any way condoning their wrongdoings: ‘Today I am going to kill something. Anything. / I have had enough of being ignored […]’ (‘Education for Leisure’). In the next lines, she draws a comparison between what the artist values, her “volume,” and what she values, the fact that she needs to eat. As the poem concludes the speaker tries to communicate with the artist. He is unreceptive and tells her to be quiet. When she sees the painting at the end of the day she cannot recognize herself. All those hours and the only thing “Georges” depicted was what he wanted to see.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse," February 3–March 15, 1959, no. 216.The relevance of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Standing Female Nude” is still prevalent in today’s society. The poem explores the objectification of women and the power dynamics between the artist and the model. These themes are still relevant today as women continue to fight for equal representation and respect in the art world and beyond. The poem also highlights the vulnerability of the model, who is often reduced to a mere object for the artist’s gaze. This speaks to the larger issue of the objectification and exploitation of women in various industries. Overall, “Standing Female Nude” serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the importance of recognizing and respecting the agency and humanity of all individuals. The Poem’s Critical Reception Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Paris–New York," June 1–September 19, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 257). Poet, playwright and freelance writer Carol Ann Duffy was born on 23 December 1955 in Glasgow and read philosophy at Liverpool University. Mulready's enthusiasm for life drawing continued unabated until his death in 1864. An entry in Richard Redgrave's diary records: ' I believe Mulready is seventy-three, and yet there he is, hard at work at the 'Life', like any young student. He is not only attending as Visitor, and drawing at the Royal Academy, but he is one of a party who meet three times a week at Ansdell's for studying from the life'. This group includes studies made both at the RA and at Ansdell's (also known as the 'Kensington Life Academy').

Meyer Schapiro. Modern Art, 19th & 20th Centuries: Selected Papers. New York, 1978, fig. 1, opp. p. 138.Carol Ann Duffy is also an acclaimed playwright, and has had plays performed at the Liverpool Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre in London. Her plays include Take My Husband (1982), Cavern of Dreams (1984), Little Women, Big Boys (1986) and Loss (1986), a radio play. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 1984 and a Cholmondeley Award in 1992 from the Society of Authors, the Dylan Thomas Award from the Poetry Society in 1989 and a Lannan Literary Award from the Lannan Foundation (USA) in 1995. She was awarded an OBE in 1995, a CBE in 2001 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. Rachel Mustalish in Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 56–57. Ronald Johnson. The Early Sculpture of Picasso, 1901–1914. PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley. New York, 1976, p. 219, fig. 219. Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, and Harold Rugg, ed. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Rev. ed (1st ed., 1934). Millerton, N. Y., 1979, pl. 50.