Nika Nesgoda | |
|---|---|
 Nika Nesgoda in Southampton, NY at Virgin reception | |
| Born | Duluth, MN, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Columbia University [1] |
| Known for | Photography |
| Notable work | "Virgin" series 2002, "Land Scrapes" series 2018 |
| Spouse | William Muchnic (m. 2003) |
Nika Nesgoda is an American artist and conceptual photographer.
In 2002, Nesgoda shot her hagiographic photographic series, VIRGIN [2] to emulate the paintings of the Old Masters and the dichotomous use of prostitutes as artists' models, [3] in particular Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, whose painting Death of the Virgin portrayed a model who was also a sex worker. [4] Nesgoda's series, VIRGIN, features adult film actresses to portray the Virgin Mary and references the historical use of marginalized women in religious art. [5] [3] In 2018, Time magazine published the series [2] and revealed that the model in her photograph, Annuntiatio [1] which pays homage to the 1333 Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi's Annunciation portrays the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels as the Virgin Mary. [6]
According to Artnet News, Nesgoda "sought to combine Christian iconography with contemporary pornography to draw attention to the fact that, from a certain perspective, both represented reductive, misogynistic views of women". [7]
In a 2019 interview with Musée Magazine, the artist stated that "[t]he moment the idea came to me of placing adult film stars into the role of the Virgin Mary, was when I asked myself, 'who is actually worthy of being worshiped?'...Why should my choice of model bother anyone, if our highest calling as human beings is to have compassion and be inclusive?" [8] Nesgoda said that she initially "...had Catholic guilt, so I went to speak with a Jesuit priest and a nun I knew. I asked if it was okay for me to do this. They said we are all human and everyone strays from the path, no one is without sin, and these women are worthy." [9]
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has publicly criticized Nesgoda's work as an affront on Catholicism. [10] Nesgoda told Vice News [11] that her work is meant to be a study of the role of women in church-commissioned art. "I think [critics like Donohue are] missing the point... some of the famous artists the church sought after to paint cathedrals and whatnot would bring their models – and a lot of these models were prostitutes and 'sinful women' – and the church condoned it, under the auspices of trying to convert them into good Christians". [10]
Nesgoda spent much of her earlier artistic life focused on portraiture, her current work is devoted to "landscapes in tiny objects, change, and texture. [1] Her Landscrapes are large-format photographic images that explore the texture and nature of tiny objects through close-up photography. [9]
Nesgoda is a graduate of Columbia University. In 2004 she took a ten-year break from art to raise her three children. [1] She has played cello for the 1980's tribute band, "The Cherry Bombs. [12]
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life, he moved between Naples, Malta, and Sicily until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Tera Patrick is an American former pornographic actress who was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for February 2000 and is an inductee of the NightMoves, AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame. She is a recipient of the Hot d'Or Award, NightMoves Award, AVN Award, XRCO Award, Venus Award, Adultcon Award, Adam Film World Guide Award, Eroticline Award, FOXE Award, FAME Award, Fanny Award, XBIZ Award, and ASACP Service Recognition Award.
Elaine Marie Catherine de Kooning was an Abstract Expressionist and Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era. She wrote extensively on the art of the period and was an editorial associate for Art News magazine.
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele.
Marlene Dumas is a South African artist and painter currently based in the Netherlands.
Caravaggio created one of his most admired altarpieces, The Entombment of Christ, in 1603–1604 for the second chapel on the right in Santa Maria in Vallicella, a church built for the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. A copy of the painting is now in the chapel, and the original is in the Vatican Pinacoteca. The painting has been copied by artists as diverse as Rubens, Fragonard, Géricault and Cézanne.
The Madonna and Child with St. Anne or Madonna and the Serpent, is one of the mature religious works of the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, painted in 1605–1606, for the altar of the Archconfraternity of the Papal Grooms in the Basilica of Saint Peter and taking its theme from Genesis 3:15. The painting was briefly exhibited in the parish church for the Vatican, Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, before its removal, due to its unorthodox portrayal of the Virgin Mary. There are a lot of reasons why the piece may have been removed, such as the nudity of the child Jesus and the Virgin Mary revealing too much of her breast. The reputation of the model that Caravaggio used to portray the Virgin Mary could be another reason as to why this altarpiece was withdrawn. The altarpiece was sold to Cardinal Scipione Borghese and now hangs in his palazzo.
Death of the Virgin (1606) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio depicting the death of the Virgin Mary. It is part of the permanent collection of the Musée du Louvre, in Paris.
Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a member of the NightMoves Hall of Fame, AVN Hall of Fame and XRCO Hall of Fame. In 2009, a recruitment effort led her to consider challenging incumbent David Vitter in the 2010 Senate election in her native Louisiana.
Lorna Simpson is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became one of the first African-American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with photo-text installations such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal that questioned the nature of identity, gender, race, history and representation. Simpson continues to explore these themes in relation to memory and history using photography, film, video, painting, drawing, audio, and sculpture.
The nude, as a form of visual art that focuses on the unclothed human figure, is an enduring tradition in Western art. It was a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art, and after a semi-dormant period in the Middle Ages returned to a central position with the Renaissance. Unclothed figures often also play a part in other types of art, such as history painting, including allegorical and religious art, portraiture, or the decorative arts. From prehistory to the earliest civilizations, nude female figures were generally understood to be symbols of fertility or well-being.
Mary Lee Abbott was an American artist, known as a member of the New York School of abstract expressionists in the late 1940s and 1950s. Her abstract and figurative work were also influenced by her time spent in Saint Croix and Haiti, where she lived off and on throughout the 1950s.
Penitent Magdalene is a 16th-century oil on canvas painting by Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. The painting portrays a repentant Mary Magdalene, bowed over in penitent sorrow as she leaves behind her dissolute life, its trappings abandoned beside her. At the time of its completion, ca. 1594–1595, the painting was unconventional for its contemporary realism and departure from traditional Magdalene iconography. It has invited both criticism and praise, with speculation even into the 21st century as to Caravaggio's intentions. The work hangs in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome.
Magdalene with the Smoking Flame is a c. 1640 oil-on-canvas depiction of Mary Magdalene by French Baroque painter Georges de La Tour. Two versions of this painting exist, one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the other in the Louvre Museum.
Esther Before Ahasuerus is a painting by the 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It shows the biblical heroine Esther going before Ahasuerus to beg him to spare her people. The painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, having been donated to the museum by Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll in 1969. It is one of Gentileschi's lesser known works, but her use of lighting, characterization, and style help in successfully portraying Esther as a biblical heroine as well as the main protagonist of the work.
Self-Portrait as a Lute Player is one of many self-portrait paintings made by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It was created between 1615 and 1617 for the Medici family in Florence. Today, it hangs in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, US. It shows the artist posing as a lute player looking directly at the audience. The painting has symbolism in the headscarf and outfit that portray Gentileschi in a costume that resembles a Romani woman. Self-Portrait as a Lute Player has been interpreted as Gentileschi portraying herself as a knowledgeable musician, a self portrayal as a prostitute, and as a fictive expression of one aspect of her identity.
Penitent Magdalene is a 1616–1618 painting by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. This painting hangs in the Pitti Palace in Florence. The subject is the biblical figure Mary Magdalene, but the painting references another biblical woman, Mary, the sister of Lazarus. This painting was likely painted during Gentileschi's Florentine period.
Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy is a painting by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It is in the Doge’s Palace in Venice.
The Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci is the altarpiece of the famous Cerasi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. The large panel painting was created in 1600–1601. The artwork is somewhat overshadowed by the two more famous paintings of Caravaggio on the side walls of the chapel: The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus and The Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Both painters were important in the development of Baroque art but the contrast is striking: Carracci's Virgin glows with even light and radiates harmony, while the paintings of Caravaggio are dramatically lit and foreshortened.
Fillide Melandroni was an Italian courtesan and friend of the painter Caravaggio, who used her as a model in several of his compositions.