Artists Working from Life

From Michelangelo's marbles to photographic self-portraits, artists have always been fascinated by their creative encounters with the human body. Often a key part of their early training, drawing and sculpting from life goes on to inform their later work in unexpected and inspiring ways.

This illuminating publication brings together interviews with over 15 artists from all disciplines, including painters, sculptors and conceptual artists, working in a variety of different media. Through their in-depth conversations with the artists, writers explore the many ways artists work 'from life': from Jeremy Deller's open life class with Iggy Pop as model to Jonathan Yeo's innovative use of 3D scanners and virtual reality. An introductory essay provides the historical context for a practice deeply rooted in artistic tradition.

Generously illustrated with reproductions of the artists' work and photography of their working methods, this book upends all our prior assumptions about 'working from life'.

Book Features:

• The first publication to focus on what working from life means today
• Artists include Jeremy Deller, Antony Gormley, Chantal Joffe, Jonathan Yeo, Yinka Shonibare and Gillian Wearing

About the Author

Caroline Bugler is a freelance writer and editor. Laura Gascoigne is an arts writer who contributes to the Spectator and Apollo. Martin Gayford is an art critic and co-author of A History of Pictures: from the Cave to the Computer Screen (Thames and Hudson, 2016) with David Hockney. Angela Kingston is a curator and writer. Adrian Locke is Senior Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Ben Luke is art critic at the Evening Standard. Sam Phillips is editor of the Royal Academy of Arts Magazine. Michael Prodger is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and assistant editor at the New Statesman. Annette Wickham is the Curator of Works on Paper at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

150 colour images