Nude and Naked Women in the Arts

Eli Bartra has used her encyclopedic mastery of Mexican art to produce a book of critical and intellectual importance. Nudes and Naked Women in the Arts offers a gendered, feminist analysis of nudes and nakedness in art. Her comments on specific works of art will not only fascinate readers but will also work against over-simplification and over-generalization. Equally important, it puts Mexican artists' use of nudes and nakedness into a conversation with related work in other parts of the globe, and in doing so counters a traditional art criticism that has neglected work from the global south. -- Linda Gordon, New York University and author of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
In Nudes and Naked Women in the Arts, Eli Bartraoffers an ambitious and successful overview of the female nude in western and Mexican art, skillfully dissecting the male gaze in canonical works and contrasting it with women and queer artists' distinct, often decolonizing portrayals of naked women. From Goya’s Nude Maja to Oaxaca folk artist Josefina Aguilar Alcántara's clay mermaids, the range of art and the depth of Bartra's analysis are breathtaking. -- John Lear, University of Puget Sound and author of Picturing the Proletariat