Who is looking, and who is being looked at: Looking is power, and is your gaze truly your own?
The nude is one of the oldest and most controversial subjects in art history. When Carpeaux’s sculpture *The Dance* was first exhibited, an outraged viewer threw ink at it, claiming it was too naked. Manet’s *Olympia* was condemned as scandalous. Courbet’s *The Origin of the World* was kept locked away in a collector’s study, hidden behind a curtain, and was only made public in modern times.
Yet, other nudes—such as Ingres’s *The Source* and Cabanel’s *The Birth of Venus*—were not only spared such criticism but became the gold standard of academic art at the time.
The issue, therefore, is not the subject of the nude itself, but rather who is looking, who is being looked at, and how they are being viewed. Foucault highlighted the symbiotic relationship between power and the gaze, noting that looking is never neutral; it is inherently tied to domination and discipline. John Berger put it more directly in *Ways of Seeing*: men look at women, and women watch themselves being looked at. This dynamic of subject and object determines which nudes are permitted and which are rejected.
Comparing the two paintings makes this clear. The prostitute in *Olympia* stares directly at the viewer, unblinking and unapologetic, her right hand shielding her body while a black cat arches its back—a gesture of both autonomy and defiance. In *The Birth of Venus*, the goddess lies with her eyes closed, her skin as smooth as porcelain, surrounded by waves and angels that frame her as a passive object of desire. From the direct versus averted gaze and the contrast between stark realism and soft pastels, to the symbolism of the cat versus the angels, these two works both reinforce and subvert the same tradition of looking.
When the viewer is in a position of control, the nude before them is like a vase—something to be admired, possessed, and dominated—which provides the viewer with a sense of comfort. It is a compliant nude, an aesthetic symbol that is easy to accept. But when the nude breaks free from that control, refusing to be dominated and even looking back to challenge the viewer, the balance is shattered. The viewer feels a profound sense of discomfort, leading them to judge the work as transgressive or indecent.
Jenny Saville’s massive canvases push the mass, folds, and raw texture of the body to the extreme. The flesh she depicts is distorted, bruised, and burdened, refusing to be merely "looked at" and directly colliding with aesthetic expectations. Viewing her work is no longer a pleasurable act of consumption, but a visual assault that forces the viewer to confront their own obsessions and biases regarding the "perfect" body.
Thus, when the nude escapes the fate of being merely an object of the gaze, it becomes a language of resistance.
Standing before the collections at the Musée d’Orsay, it is worth asking a few questions again. Have you ever felt uncomfortable while looking at a nude? Are we also living under the gaze of others? Has the gaze of others become internalized within you? Is your gaze truly your own?
Looking is never just looking. Looking is power.
Viki Kuo
Originally from Taoyuan, Viki Kuo has worked in contemporary art galleries and museums in Taipei, Beijing, and Shanghai since 2007, focusing on exhibition curation, artist research, and field observation. Since moving to Paris in 2020, she has been responsible for curating and teaching the Paris–Taipei Express art program. Combining a researcher’s perspective with firsthand experience in the art world, she guides readers and students through the conceptual frameworks, art history, and cultural contexts of contemporary art, as well as the ways in which we look at it. To date, Viki Kuo / Paris-Taipei Express has organized and hosted over 60 online and in-person (Paris/Taiwan) lectures and courses. She has served as an art lecturer for institutions including the EAC (École d'Art et de Culture) in Paris (2024), IESA (Institut d'Études Supérieures des Arts) in Paris (2024–2026), the OneArt Taipei art fair (2024–2025), the Landseed Life Aesthetics Foundation, and Tongxueshe.
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