Iggy Pop Life Class in progress — *Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller*. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, February 21, 2016. (Photo: Elena Olivo, © Brooklyn Museum)

Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, February 21, 2016. (Photo: Elena Olivo, © Brooklyn Museum)

Jeanette Farrow. Untitled (Four poses: Standing, view from left; lying; standing, view from right; and sitting), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Compressed charcoal over graphite pencil on paper, 17 x 11 in. (43.2 x 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.2a. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Tobias Hall (American, born 1981). Untitled (Seated pose, detail of face), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Graphite pencil with touches of white chalk on paper, 19⁷/₈ x 25¹/₂ in. (50.5 x 64.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.6c. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Jeremy Day (American, born 1976). Untitled (Seated pose, back view), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Graphite pencil on paper, 22 x 15 in. (55.9 x 38.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.1i. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Levan Songulashvili (Georgian, born 1991). Untitled (Standing pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Black ink, brushed and blotted with scratching out, with black pencil on board, 16¹/₈ x 12³/₄ in. (41 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.21c. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Charlotte Segall (American, born 1983). Untitled (Lying pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Natural charcoal with white chalk on pink paper, 12³/₄ x 19⁵/₈ in. (32.4 x 49.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.19b. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Angel Ramirez (American, born Peru 1978). Untitled (Lying pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Orange colored pencil on paper, 14 x 17 in. (35.6 x 43.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.14b. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Guno Park (Canadian, born South Korea 1979). Untitled (Seated pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Black ballpoint pen on paper, 15 x 11¹/₄ in. (38.1 x 28.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.12e. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Kallyiah Merilus (American, born 1996). Untitled (Standing pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Natural charcoal and compressed charcoal with erasing on paper, 24³/₈ x 18 in. (61.9 x 45.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.11c. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Michael Grimaldi (American, born 1971). Untitled (Seated pose), from Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller, 2016. Graphite pencil and powdered graphite on paper, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum Collection, TL2016.8.22c. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)

Here are some questions visitors asked us during their visit to this exhibition.

On your next visit, use our app to ask your own questions, get info, and share insights by texting with our team of knowledgeable and friendly experts.

What can you tell me about this?

The photo was taken in Rabaul Harbor in Papua New Guinea during WWII. Rabaul was a key base of air and naval operations for the Japanese in the South Pacific. During a battle, an American plane was shot down, and another aircraft was sent to retrieve the airman who was now in the water.

The rescuing gunner realized he would have to go in the water to save his mate, so he stripped nude, jumped in, and brought the injured man on board.

Before he had any time to put his clothes back on, however, he had to get back to his machine gun post, and so he did, butt naked! That is the moment the photographer, Horace Bristol, captured. Can you see the text behind the gunner's backside?

Amazing. And he's hot...

Is this Roman?

This Torso of Dionysus is probably the most Roman object on view right now! Like many Roman statues, it is a copy of a Greek original. It can be identified as Dionysus by the goat hooves on the skin he wears.

Of particular interest is the incredible craftsmanship and the beautiful black stone that was quarried in Egypt.

Thank you.

Why is the exhibition called Iggy Pop Life Class?

The focal point of the exhibition are drawings from a single life class where Iggy Pop was the model. Learning to draw the human body has long been an important aspect of art education. Live models in different poses provide a way for students to learn from real life. In this case, the conceptual artist Jeremy Deller has created a class of artists with different backgrounds and one model, Iggy Pop.

Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller

November 4, 2016–June 18, 2017

In Iggy Pop Life Class, Turner Prize–winning artist Jeremy Deller used the traditional life drawing class to stage a performative event with Iggy Pop as model and subject. The exhibition presents the resulting drawings along with works from our historical collections, chosen by Deller, that depict the male body, examining shifting representations of masculinity throughout history.

The fifty-three drawings included in the exhibition were created on February 21, 2016, during a one-day life drawing class, using Pop as the unexpected model. The class was held at the New York Academy of Art and included twenty-two artists drawn from New York City’s diverse communities, ranging in age from 19 to 80, with varying backgrounds and levels of education and experience. The class was led by artist and drawing professor Michael Grimaldi. The participating artists are Jeremy Day, Jeanette Farrow, Margaret Fisher, Seiji Gailey, Robert Hagan, Tobias Hall, Deirdra Hazeley, Patricia Hill, Okim Woo Kim, Maureen McAllister, Kallyiah Merilus, Guno Park, Kinley Pleteau, Angel Ramirez, Robert Reid, Mauricio Rodriguez, Danielle Rubin, Taylor Schultek, Charlotte Segall, Andrew Shears, and Levan Songulashvili.

Deller’s collaboration with Pop as a nude model is essential to his concept. A pioneer rock musician—as a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor—Pop began performing in the 1960s, becoming known for strenuous and unpredictable stage performances that often left his body battered and cut. As Deller notes, “Iggy Pop has one of the most recognizable bodies in popular culture. A body that is key to an understanding of rock music, and that has been paraded, celebrated, and scrutinized through the years in a way that is unusual for a man. It is also fair to say that it has witnessed a lot. It was for these reasons that I wanted him to sit for a life class.” For Deller, the life drawing class offered the opportunity to study his body in direct and palpable terms.

Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller is organized by Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum.

Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan, the FUNd, Shane Akeroyd, Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons, Kathleen and Henry Elsesser, Cristina Enriquez-Bocobo, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and Charlotte Feng Ford.

The accompanying book is published by the Brooklyn Museum in association with Heni Publishing, London. This publication is supported by the FUNd.

Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller is part of A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum, a yearlong series of exhibitions celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.