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Iggy Pop: Godfather Of Punk Poses Nude For Brooklyn Art Exhibit

By Ny MaGee
Published on: 10:32 PST, Feb 29, 2016

Musician Iggy Pop can now add Nude Art Model to his portfolio of greatness, as the godfather of punk was recently the subject of study for a group of artists at the New York Academy of Art. The provocative project titled, “Iggy Pop Life Class,” was conceived by British artist Jeremy Delle and the drawings will be on exhibit this fall at the Brooklyn Museum, before then heading on tour.

“The life class is a special place in which to scrutinize the human form. As the bedrock of art education and art history, it is still the best way to understand the body,” Deller said. “For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the subject of a life class; his body is central to an understanding of rock music and its place within American culture. His body has witnessed much and should be documented.”

Check out an edited version of the photo below. A quick search on Twitter will reveal the uncensored version, or you can view it on Pitchfork.

The life drawing class was led by artist and drawing professor Michael Grimaldi, and the participating New York-based artists ranged in age from 19 to 80-years-old with varying backgrounds. The 21 participants were selected by Deller based on recommendations from the Brooklyn Museum, as well from various art institutions, colleges and influential individuals from the creative community.

Iggy Pop is considered an iconic performer and frontman, who has performed partially nude (mostly shirtless) for the past 50 years. His legacy is ripe with drug use, rehab, tales about the size of his manhood, and a stay at a mental institution where David Bowie was one of his few visitors. Their friendship birthed Iggy’s late-70s, Bowie-produced Berlin albums. Bowie helped write and produce two of Pop’s most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, The Idiot and Lust for Life.

Earlier this month, Iggy led a group of all-star musicians in tributes to his late friend David Bowie. He also penned a moving tribute to Bowie for Rolling Stone in January.

“I learned a lot from him,” Iggy wrote. “I first heard the Ramones, Kraftwerk and Tom Waits from him. He also had a certain rigor. If he saw something in another artist he admired, if they didn’t pick up that ball and run with it, he didn’t have any problem saying, ‘Well, if you’re not going to do it, I will. I’ll do this thing you should have done.’ And that was very valid.”

Iggy has teamed with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme to co-write Post Pop Depression, and it could be his last ever album. “I feel like I’m closing up after this,” Pop said during a Beats 1 radio interview in January.

Homme told The New York Times that the LP picks up where Pop’s Lust for Life left off. In the same interview, the former Stooges frontman explained the album’s theme: “What happens after your years of service? And where is the honor?”

[Related: Iggy Pop, Josh Homme’s Secret Album ‘Post Pop Depression’ Drops On March 18]

Pop and Josh have unveiled the latest track off the LP, “Sunday,” and it follows previous Post Pop Depression singles “Gardenia” and “Break Into Your Heart.”

“I proposed [the idea] to him by text from my flip-phone,” Pop said of the Homme collaboration on The Late Show. “I just said, ‘I thought maybe we could write something and record it. I didn’t want it to put it in a box, and neither did he.”

Iggy Pop and John Homme will embark on a six-week tour in support of their new LP March 28th at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. Post Pop Depression is out March 18. Listen to “Sunday” below.


[Images via Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP]

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