John Button (1929-1982) was a fine draftsman and drew from life models throughout his career. However, little known are his sketches of male nudes—studio models from the School of Visual Arts (where Button taught), as well as personal acquaintances. Tim Dlugos writes: “The setting and the artist’s tools are as stripped down as the models: a naked man, a pencil, and a sheet of paper. Button creates erotic tension in these drawings not by addition . . . but by a remarkable effective process of subtraction.”
