Body Painting

Body painting was very common used in the early 12th to mid 14th century by religeous practicioners in rituals. This is an example of Gothic Art. It was common in the areas of countries we now refer to as France and Germany. Examples were displayed on frescoes, but primarily worn by members of the church clergy under robes. Primarily symbols on the arms, chest and back, these forms of identification led to Dalecarlian form of writing found in many northern European countries.

Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. Body painting is also referred to as (a form of) temporary tattoo; large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work is generally referred to as temporary tattoos.

There has been a revival of body painting in the Western society since the 1960s, in part prompted by the liberalization of social mores regarding nudity. Even today there is a constant debate about the legitimacy of body painting as an art form. The current modern revival could be said to date back to the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago where Max Factor and his model were arrested for causing a public disturbance when he bodypainted her with his new make-up formulated for Hollywood films.

Body painting is not always large pieces on fully nude bodies, but can involve smaller pieces on displayed areas of otherwise clothed bodies.

Body painting led to a minor alternative art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which involved covering a model in paint and then having the model touch or roll on a canvas or other medium to transfer the paint. French artist Yves Klein is perhaps the most famous for this, with his series of paintings ‘Anthropometries’. The effect produced by this technique creates an image-transfer from the model’s body to the medium. This includes all the curves of the model’s body (typically female) being reflected in the outline of the image. This technique was not necessarily monotone; multiple colors on different body parts sometimes produced interesting effects.

Joanne Gair is a leading body paint artist whose work appeared for the tenth consecutive year in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She burst into prominence with a August 1992 Vanity Fair Demi’s Birthday Suit cover of Demi Moore. Her Disappearing Model was part of the highest rated episode of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!.

Body painting is commonly used as a method of gaining attention in political protests, for instance those by PETA against Burberry.

The 1960s supermodel Veruschka is often cited as being many body painters’ muse.[citation needed] Her images in the book Transfigurations with photographer Holger Trulzsch have frequently been emulated.[citation needed] Other well-known works include Serge Diakonoff’s books A Fleur de Peau and Diakonoff and Joanne Gair’s Paint a licious.

Since the early 1990s bodypainting has become more widely accepted in the United States, and more and more body artists are beginning to come onto the national community.

Starting in late 2006 Sacramento art galleries started to use fine art bodypainting as performance art to draw new patrons.[citation needed]

In 2006 the first gallery dedicated exclusively to fine art bodypainting was opened in New Orleans by World Bodypainting Festival Champion and Judge, Craig Tracy. The Painted Alive Gallery is on Royal Street in the French Quarter.

Many artists work professionally as body painters across the world. Their work is seen regularly in television commercials, such as the Natrel Plus campaign featuring models camouflaged as trees. Body painters also work frequently in the film arena especially in science fiction with more and more elaborate alien creations being body painted. Stills advertising also used body painting with hundreds of body painting looks on the pages of the world’s magazines every year.