From his see-through pants to posing nude on the covers of books, Iggy Pop has been getting his kit off long since before most of us were born. Yet, for some reason, the whole world flipped earlier last month when he announced that he’d be posing naked for Jeremy Deller’s life drawing class. “Paint me like one of your French girls!” he asked a group of artists from New York Academy of Art. And sure enough they did, the result of which will on display at a totally NSFW exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, that opens this fall.
“The life class is a special place in which to scrutinize the human form,” Deller said at the time. “As the bedrock of art education and art history, it is still the best way to understand the body. 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.”
Finally addressing his involvement, Iggy revealed to Entertainment Weekly, that “it was not about anything silly…It wasn’t about my winkie, or anything. It was just a documentation of what’s left of me. I thought it was a good idea the artist had and I enjoyed so much the company of the 21 drawing students and working artists. It was a very nice vibe in the room.” Elsewhere, the 68-year-old rock god described how he got through the 20-minute class by running through his entire back catalogue. “The way I got through it, without going crazy, was listening to my own songs from my albums — including this one — in my head”.
Iggy Pop Life Class will be showing at the Brooklyn Museum this fall.