The Nakeds Exhibition catalogue, 24 x 16 cm, Edited by Mary Doyle and Kate Macfarlane, 2014.

This book accompanies group exhibition, The Nakeds, which is devoted to drawings of the body exposed. The Nakeds takes as its starting point selected drawings of the single figure by Egon Schiele. From here it considers work by artists from the post-war period to the present day.

The naked body is frequently the physical terrain artists traverse in search of the inner self. How to represent love, shame, solitude and sexual yearning? Drawing from the self or life model, from reproduction or the imagination, has provided artists with the freedom to explore desires, fears and fantasies.

This catalogue includes , amongst others, work from highly acclaimed artists such as Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Paul McCarthy, Chris Ofili, Egon Schiele, Nancy Spero, Andy Warhol and Franz West. Artist Nicola Tyson contributes Dear Egon Schiele, a new letter in her ongoing series of letters to dead male artists.

Additional texts include essays by exhibition co-curators, artist David Austen and art historian Dr Gemma Blackshaw, who will investigate Schiele’s drawings of the single figure, the contested issue of art and pornography in Vienna around 1900, and Schiele as seen through the lens of contemporary female artists.