Happy Valentine’s Day
Hopefully you snagged a ticket to one of our popular Naked at the Art Museum Scavenger Hunts, where you can peek at the naughty side of great works of art. If not, you still might be able to join one, though they’re selling out fast—find out if a hunt near you is still available.
Whether you want to see what you’re in for, or get a taste of what you’re missing, test your wits on these preview questions featuring nude art.
1. Oh My, Manet!
Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass created a huge uproar when it was first shown. What upset people more than the fact that the woman depicted is naked?
2. Think About It
Rodin originally conceived his famous male nude sculpture as Dante before the Gates of Hell, thinking about his great poem. Who is that figure known as?
3. On Second Thought
One of this artist’s most famous works originally depicted five prostitutes and two men in a brothel. He eventually painted over the clients, leaving only the women. What 20th-century artist painted this ground-breaking scene?
4. Armory Uproar
Despite its avant garde style, Marcel Duchamp’s most famous nude caused scandal and ridicule at the 1913 Armory show in New York City. What is the subject doing in the painting?
5. It’s a Living
Contemporary artist Daniel Edwards, famous for sculpting things such as Suri Cruise’s first poop and a naked Britney Spears giving birth, immortalized a young pop couple in the buff in 2011. Who were the two pop stars?
The Answers
1. Critics were scandalized that the men in Luncheon on the Grass were wearing clothes while one woman was not.
2. The Thinker was based on Dante.
3. Pablo Picasso painted—and then revised—Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
3. Duchamp caught heck for his Nude Descending a Staircase.
5. Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber: Edwards’ Justin and Selena As One depicts the pair as a sort of pop-culture Adam and Eve.