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Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces

Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces

The fascinating true stories of thirty incredible muses—and their role in some of art history's most well-known masterpieces.

We instantly recognize many of their faces from the world's most iconic artworks—but just who was Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'? Or the burglar in Francis Bacon's oeuvre? Why was Grace Jones covered in graffiti? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity, and practical help to artists. However, the perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model (usually young, attractive, and female) at the mercy of an influential and older male artist. Could this impression be incorrect and unfair? Is this trope a romanticized myth? Have people embraced, even sought, the status of muse? Most importantly, where would artists be without them? In Muse, Ruth Millington's goal is to re-assess and re-claim that word in a celebratory narrative that takes ownership and demonstrates how outdated the common perception of that word is.

Muse also explores the idea of ‘muse’ in a different way and includes performance artists and celebrities, iconic figures we perhaps haven’t considered before as muses, such as Tilda Swinton and Grace Jones. By delving into the real-life relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalized them, it will expose the influential and active part they have played in contributing to the artwork they inspired, and explore the various ways people have subverted stereotypical ‘muse’ roles.

From job supervisors to homeless men in Harlem, Muse will reveal the unexpected, overlooked, and forgotten models of art history. Through the stories of thirty remarkable lives, from performing muses to muses who have been turned into messages, this book will deconstruct reductive stereotypes of the muse, and reframe it as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.

Introduction

The Artist as Muse

Juan de Pareja: A Face of Freedom

Dora Maar: The Weeping Woman

Emilie Flöge: Dressing Klimt’s Kiss

Peter Schlesinger: Sink or Swim

The Self as Muse

Artemisia Gentileschi: Survivor, Painter, Slayer

Frida Kahlo: Heroine of Pain

Sunil Gupta: Playing Dead

Nilupa Yasmin: Weaving a Way In

Family Albums

Helena Dumas: Childhood Uncensored

Beyoncé: The Fertility Goddess

Fukase Sukezo: Father Figure

For the Love of the Muse

Ada Katz: American Beauty

George Dyer: Bacon and the Burglar

Lawrence Alloway: The Critic Stripped Bare

Gala Dalí: Queen of the Castle

Performing Muse

Moro: Homemade Sushi

Ulay: Breathing in Marina Abramovic

Grace Jones: Graffiti Goddess

Tilda Swinton: Surrealist Shapeshifter

Lila Nunes: Guardian Angel

Muse of a Movement

Elizabeth Siddal: Ophelia Awakes

Sunday Reed: In the Paradise Garden

Lady Ottoline Morrell: Bloomsbury Bohemian

Marchesa Luisa Casati: Medusa’s Stare

Muse as Message

Anna Christina Olson: Christina’s World

Doreen Lawrence: No Woman, No Cry

Sue Tilley: Supervisor Sleeping

Ollie Henderson: Start the Riot

Souleo: Icon of Harlem

Epilogue: The Muse Manifesto

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