LONDON.- The nude is one of art history's most important subjects. Both sensual and controversial, sacred and sacrilegious it has adorned everything from cave walls, museums for centuries.
Barnebys, the worlds leading art and auction search engine, has been tracking the view of artists on the controversial presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Barnebys provides buyers and sellers with access to 1,600 auction houses in a one-stop-shop where you can find what you are searching for on one website. Barnebys has been described as the Google of the art auction world.
One of the founders of Barnebys, Pontus Silfverstolpe, says: "Nudity in art has always fascinated humans. The recent series of nude portraits of the American presidential campaigner is no exception.
Capturing the naked human figure continues to challenge artists. In 1504, Michelangelo defined the beauty of the male figure with his most famous work the statue of David. A century later, Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, defined female beauty with his numerous paintings of nude biblical and mythological women.
Gray's sale on October 26th will feature a nude which hit the news recently. The Emperor Has No Balls, a sculpture by artist Joshua ''Ginger'' Monroe is a satirical depiction of a naked Donald Trump. The sculpture is one of the original five the artist claimed to have created.
A copy of The Emperor Has No Balls sold at Julien's Auctions Gallery on October 17, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California for $22,000.
At the time the statues were erected in Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Cleveland and Los Angeles, a spokesperson told Rolling Stone: ''We started thinking a lot about how dictators and tyrants, all though history, were memorialized through statues. Go to any major park in America, you've got some rich white general with a sword.'' Proceeds from the sale of Ginger's work will benefit public art funding in the city of Cleveland Heights.
Joshua ''Ginger'' Monroe's statue is now part of a Trump art 'dynasty.' In the lead up to the November election a painting by Illma Gore. Make America Great Again, an image of a naked Trump was on view at Londons Maddox Gallery in Mayfair before being sold this August was a social media sensation.
James Nicholls, managing director and curator at the Maddox Gallery, says: ''it was an extraordinary experience. The overwhelming response from visitors to the work was positive.''
Another artist, Saint Hoax, has depicted the presidential candidate as both a drag queen and a piece of meat, not to mention the countless street art 'murals.'