Artists - Part 85

Oleksandr Balbyshev

Oleksandr Balbyshev, born in 1985, is a Ukranian artist.  His art has two different main themes.  First, he is gay, and he uses art to try to understand the nature of male identity and the stigma of the male nude.  Second, he reinterprets symbols of the USSR, the empire that occupied his motherland for seven decades.  In particular, he reinterprets old portraits of Lenin and other Soviet leaders into something funny, not scary.  We will look at paintings of his first main theme, exploring the stigma of the male nude.

The Hide and Seek in the Rocks, 2016, was an early work exploring this theme.  It's quite realistic and could almost be a photograph (but it's a painting).

Catboy, 2019.  Balbyshev commented: "About 30 years ago, a group of feminist artists, Guerrilla Girls, decided to determine the ratio of male and female nudes presented on canvases exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It turned out that male nudes are only 15%. ... I would like to see our culture represent naked men as frequently as we do naked women to remove the shock value of the nude male. And this is my goal as an artist." 

I Swear It Wasn't Me, 2020.  Balbyshev's comment: "Ukrainians have always been famous for their urge for excessive decorative effects and embellishment. That’s why I have a craving for decorativeness and the use of ornaments in my artworks."

Bather with the Great Wave, 2020, copies Hokusai's famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa and adds a foreground figure plus some rainbow coloration in the background.

St. Sebastian, 2022.  Balbyshev's comment: "In this series, I integrate a male body's sensual beauty with paintings of world-famous artists ... This is a kind of reflection on how the art of the last centuries could have been if the male body had not been discriminated against."

There have been many historic paintings of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, but none of them are nude; Sebastian always wears a loincloth.

Guy on the Shore, 2025.  Balbyshev's comment: "Within queer art discourse, the male body has often been commodified or censored—either eroticized as spectacle or erased entirely. By placing this nude figure in a lush, otherworldly setting of lilies and dappled light, I reclaim his form from voyeurism and invisibility alike. He is neither passive object nor heroic ideal but a being in quiet communion with nature—an act of radical self-acceptance against cultural norms that police desire and shame the body."

Lovers, 2025.  Balbyshev's comment: "In “Lovers,” I continue my exploration of queer identity through the visual vocabulary of Cubism, deeply inspired by the groundbreaking works of Pablo Picasso. This painting portrays two intertwined male figures whose fragmented, mask-like faces symbolize the complexities and hidden realities of queer love."

The Reclining Nude, 2025.  Balbyshev's comment: "The Reclining Nude revisits one of the most enduring archetypes in Western art — the reclining figure — to question who is allowed to embody beauty, desire, and vulnerability.  For centuries, this pose has been synonymous with the idealized female body — passive, sensual, created to be seen. In this work, I reclaim that gesture through a queer lens, offering the male body as both subject and storyteller."

The River's Son, 2025, is a queer counterpart to Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

Unconventional Hearts, 2025, is an exploration of love that defies societal conventions.

We end with Kiss, 2025.  Balbyshev's comment: "Kiss is a meditation on the fragmented nature of queer love ... Two male figures intertwine, merging and dissolving into abstraction, their forms simultaneously embracing and disintegrating. The kiss itself is obscured, reflecting the forced anonymity of same-sex love in a world that still dictates who is allowed to exist openly.  Kiss captures the paradox of queer intimacy: bound yet yearning, fragmented yet whole, unseen yet impossible to ignore. It is a reminder that love, no matter how abstracted or restrained, will always find a way to exist."

My comment: this recent work is more abstract than his previous work, but it's also the only one that I've seen that features an erection, so maybe the future of Balbyshev's art is looking up.

Beach Bums - Part 79

 Cable Beach, Broome Australia

Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia, is a beautiful 22 km (14 mile) long stretch of white sand.  Tourists can take camel rides on the beach, which can be stunning as the sun sets into the Indian Ocean.  (Note: these riders are not nude, but the camel rides go through the nude section of the beach.)

The southern end of the beach is not clothing optional, but beyond a wall of rocks near the vehicle access point, the northern 17 km (11 miles) of beach is a nude beach.

Here is the beach by daylight – a dazzling stretch of white sand.

The beach was named Cable Beach after an undersea telegraph cable that was laid from here to Java in 1889.

A beachgoer, front ...

and rear.

Although the beach looks very wide at low tide, tides are extreme here, and the beach can virtually disappear at high tide.

Another beachgoer.

The water is shallow.  However, it's best to stay out of the water in the summer, due to stinging jellyfish that may be present.

In 2024, a survey by British and German firms ranked Cable Beach the #1 sexiest beach in the world, based on things like seclusion, sunset, popularity with couples, and friendliness toward LGBTQ travelers.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 76

Church Signs

Churches often post a sign, usually about the upcoming church service.  Here are some notable ones.

Above, what kind of pleasures are they talking about?

Oh, rubbing one out.  Even better if a friend does it.

But you can do more than that.  Come and eat pastor Thomas Ressler, who apparently has the best sausage in St. Louis.

And for those into rear pleasures, a tongue getting into a tight place ...

can bring a man to his knees.

You may be thinking, don't churches frown on this?  Apparently not.  Jesus said, bring me that ass (Matthew 21:2).

This preacher's sermon is about having a peter in him.

And if you can both do each other, great things happen.

This church went as far as holding an anal convention, for which they thank the Lord.

(Note: apparently they meant "annual convention", but somebody couldn't spell.)

We end with this very religious question: how often do you come?

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 85

Brussels 2024

We've seen this guy before as Young Pinocchio in previous World Naked Bike Rides (you'll see later).  In Brussels in 2024, his girlfriend drew a bunch of cartoon characters from SpongeBob Squarepants on him.

On his front was painted Patrick Star, SpongeBob's dimwitted friend.  Our hero is posing with Jerome Jolibois, who organizes the WNBR in Brussels, in the park where WNBR riders gather.

And there's SpongeBob and other characters on his back.

Here he is at right posing with other WNBR riders, with Jerome in the center.

Talking to another rider.

And then the ride begins.  Our friend is in the center.

Riding through the streets of Brussels.

We end with this view of him in the 2022 WNBR in Amsterdam, showing him painted as Pinocchio.  I actually like this better than SpongeBob, because with Pinocchio, you can hope to see what happens if he tells a lie.

Estonian Photos - Part 41

Estonian Photos

We continue our series of photos from the Tartu Ülikooli museum of anthropology in Estonia.

For those who haven't seen my previous posts in this series, a few words of explanation.  The museum provides no information about the men, other than the photos came from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu.  In particular, it does not say who these men are, or when or why the photos were taken.  However, the photos are labeled "Füüsilise antropoloogia pildistus" (physical anthropology photography).

Who are these men?  My best guess is that they are military recruits.  The very short haircuts suggest that these photos were taken during or shortly after the enlistment process.

Many of the men in this series have dark faces and hands.  Are they are tanned from working outside like farmers, or are they dirty from some dirty occupation?  We don't know.

Note: the dark faces and hands are not as visible in today's post as in some previous posts, but darker hands are visible in some of the side views.  Perhaps the photos in today's post were taken in the winter, when farmers would not be spending as much time outside getting tanned.

When were the photos taken?  My best guess is between World War I and World War II, when Estonia was an independent country with its own military.  Before WWI, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, and after WWII, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

A clue to the time frame is that these photographs were made on glass plates, not film.  Dry glass-plate photography started in 1871 and began to fall out of use in the 1920s.  I found some references to it in Estonia through the 1930s.

One other clue to the time frame of these photos is that in two previous batches, one of the men is wearing a wristwatch.   Wristwatches were considered to be for ladies before World War I.  (Men used pocket watches.)  However, during the war, wristwatches proved very useful for soldiers and pilots.  After WWI, wristwatches came into fashion for men.

Note: Some of these men (255 through 260) appear older than the hundreds of others photographed, and they have mustaches, which the hundreds of others do not have.  Were they military recruits?  Perhaps they were officers, not recruits, who got "volunteered" by a superior officer for the same photographic project as the recruits.

Although wristwatches were evidently rare in Estonia (only two men wore a wristwatch among the hundreds that were photographed), it suggests that these photos are post-World War I.

Since the use of glass plates fell out of use in the 1920s, I think the photos were most likely taken shortly after World War I.

Although these appear to be (mostly) military recruits, these are probably not military photos.  We know that the museum that currently has the photos got them from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu.  If these are military photos, why would they end up at the Institute of Anatomy?

I believe the photos were taken by academics doing a study of physical anthropology.  Scientists at the Institute of Anatomy were trying to measure what they considered racial characteristics of the population by measuring the body, including phrenology (measuring the skull), ideas which are now discredited.

I think that the scientists at the Institute of Anatomy may have persuaded the military to let them take photographs of the naked new recruits for "research" purposes.  I have no written evidence to support this idea, but since the photos were at the Institute of Anatomy, and the photo subjects appear to be military recruits, it's now my best guess as to what happened.

One other question that perennially arises from these photos is: why were the men photographed in pairs?  Was it to save film?

The answer is that these photos were made on glass plates, not film, but glass plates were more expensive and involved more labor than film, so yes, it's likely that the men were photographed in pairs to save on glass plates.

So, bottom line: My best guess is that these photos were taken after World War I, the subjects are new or recent Army recruits, and the Estonian military allowed scientists from the Institute of Anatomy to take photos of the naked recruits for a study of physical anthropology.