The Ghost in the Human Machine: Tony Bennett's Nude Drawing of Lady Gaga
by Gregg Chadwick Lady Gaga Poses For Tony Bennett in His Atelier photo and concept by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair During Lady Gaga's entertaining Thanksgiving special she joked about her brief gig as a life model for singer and visual artist Tony Bennett. Gaga recounted: "I walked in and said, 'Well, Tony, here we are,' and I dropped my robe and I got into position. I felt shy and thought, 'It's Tony Bennett. Why am I naked?" Lady Gaga had come face to face with what Kathleen Rooney describes as the “spine-tingling combination of power and vulnerability, submission and dominance” of nude modeling in her marvelous book Live Nude Girl : My Life As An Object. Rooney's book provides an introspective look at the history and challenges of art modeling from the model's point of view. Rooney's meditative prose leads us to a point of connection between muse and artist. Why after centuries of images in charcoal, paint, stone and ...