1998
Contemporary New York City-based artist Mark Beard has long demonstrated command in a variety of mediums — he works in oil paint, bronze, ceramics and more. Beard is known mainly for his portraits and figurative paintings, but he is prolific in figurative drawing and nude photography as well.
Beard was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1986, he began working as a set designer, and for the next decade, he created more than 20 sets in New York City, London, Frankfurt, Vienna and Cologne. As a painter and printmaker, Beard didn’t wish to confine himself to a rigid style and instead sought to explore Impressionism, Art Nouveau and other movements in a range of mediums. In order to freely move from one style to the next, Beard created several different personas, assigning a specific biography to each one.
Beard's most prominent artistic alter ego is Bruce Sargeant, whom the artist has positioned in exhibitions as an early 20th-century painter. Beard's work as Sargeant is a detailed study of the male physique. The paintings often feature sculpted athletic men engaged in physical activities like wrestling and rowing. The work is steeped in homoeroticism, and the artist’s name itself is a reference to painter John Singer Sargent — while he’s best known for his Edwardian-era portraits, John Singer Sargent also created murals and drawings of male nudes that were similarly reflective of a homoerotic sensibility.
Beard is also an accomplished landscape painter. His great-grandfather, George Beard, was a regional painter and photographer of the Rocky Mountains. Mark spent summers at his grandfather's 19th-century log cabin retreat as a child. These formative experiences are reflected in his own stunning landscape paintings.
Beard's artwork is held in many high-profile museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Today, Beard resides in the Manhattan loft that he purchased in 1994 with his partner, James Manfred. It serves as both his home and his studio. The space is filled with his oil paintings, drawings and sculptures.
On 1stDibs, find Mark Beard paintings, drawings, photography and more.
Tim
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Tim 1998 Signed, dated, and inscribed “AP” in pencil, recto Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper 22 x 15 inches, sheet 9 x 6.75 inches, image This work is offered by ClampArt in ...
Polaroid
Marc (Rear with Cigarette)
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
This unique hand-painted photograph by Mark Beard is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Paint, Silver Gelatin
Untitled No. 51
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Also blindstamped, l.r. 22 x 15 inches, sheet 10 x 8 inches, image This artwork is offered by Clam...
Photogravure
Handstand
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Handstand 1998 Signed, dated, and numbered (1/6) in pencil, recto Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper 22 x 15 inches, sheet 9 x 7 inches, image Contact gallery for price. This ...
Polaroid
Male Nude Backside
By Jessica Tanzer
Located in New York, NY
Male Nude Backside 1988 Signed in pencil, l.r. Also signed, dated, verso Vintage gelatin silver print 14 x 11 inches Contact gallery for price. This work is offered by ClampArt i...
Silver Gelatin
Untitled (Male Buttocks)
By Mark Morrisroe
Located in New York, NY
Vintage chromogenic print (negative sandwich) retouched with ink (Edition of 12) Estate stamp in black ink, verso Also numbered in black ink, l.r. 16 x 20 inches, sheet 12.75 x 19.5...
C Print
Standing Figure back
Located in Denver, CO
Standing Figure back
Oil, Wood Panel
Back
By Robert Farber
Located in Greenwich, CT
Edition of 10
Archival Pigment
Bar Back
By Attila Richard Lukacs
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962) is one of Canada's most distinctive if not revolutionary Canadian figurative painters. Lukacs established his reputation in the 1980s by creating astonishing large-scale paintings that depicted skinheads, construction workers, and other masculine archetypes in elaborate and erotic scenes. The physical presence of the Lukacs' male subjects stands out as one of the artist's most distinctive aesthetic elements. With meticulous attention to form and proportions, Lukacs skillfully renders his young men with expressive brushwork and an intense, moody palette reminiscent of the old masters. Despite the monumental scale of his canvases, Lukacs begins his creative process with a much more intimate and modern-day tool: the Polaroid. Because of its immediacy and simplicity, it became an essential part of his process in the 80's and 90's. As a result, the artist amassed a trove of over 1,200 Polaroids that depict lovers, friends, and anonymous models in various poses that serve as a starting point for his paintings. In this grid of Polaroids, "Bar Back" is a young man posing nude on top of a first aid kit. The exceptional warmth and rich hues infuse this series of 12 Polaroids with a sensual and painterly quality, a characteristic that is undoubtably present throughout the artist's oeuvre. From 2009-2012 a large touring exhibition devoted to Lukacs' Polaroids was shown at several museums across Canada including Museum London and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Working with Michael Morris...
Polaroid
Untitled 13 (Mark Beard Polaroid Transfer of Young Male Nude on Rives BFK)
By Mark Beard
Located in Hudson, NY
image size: 10 x 8 inches Young male sitting against dark background Polaroid Transfer on 22 x 15 inch Rives BFK paper, unframed signed SM Beard in pencil on bottom right corner. ed...
Archival Paper, Polaroid
Figure 2
By Matthew Durante
Located in Denver, CO
Matthew Durante's "Figure 2 2021" is an original, handmade acrylic painting that depicts a pink-toned nude male model kneeling on a blue surface.
Oil, Acrylic, Panel, Pencil
Baroque Back (Polaroid Transfer of Standing Young Nude Man on Rives BFK)
By Mark Beard
Located in Hudson, NY
image size: 8 x 10 inches Standing Young Nude Man Polaroid Transfer on 22 x 15 inch Rives BFK paper, unframed signed SM Beard in pencil on bottom left corner. ed. 1/6 This is one i...
Archival Paper, Polaroid
The French photographer transformed everyday encounters into enduring images of shared experience.
The New York photographer tells us how an encounter with the then-13-year-old boxer led to a decade-long project that saw them both go pro.
