[KarlMalone]

This Is What Happens When Art Students Recreate Famous Nude Masterpieces (NSFW)

Nudes are hot right now," photographer Matthew Leifheit mused in an email exchange with HuffPost. Leifheit has many titles, among them VICE photo editor and editor-in-chief of MATTE Magazine. Recently, he's taken on a faculty position at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, a role that's allowed him to better explore the beautiful and nefarious world of naked art.

The fruits of his labor are currently on view at SVA, in a pop-up exhibition titled "Artsy Nudes." For the project, he gave his participating students a simple prompt: choose any nude work of art from all of art history and recreate it. From Henri Matisse's "The Dance" to Diego Velázquez's "Rokeby Venus" to Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase," the appropriations breathed life into nude standards many hold near and dear to their hearts.

Some images appear remarkably similar to their historical antecedents, others take liberties to create a new photograph from an old painting. "I think reverse-engineering successful images to find out how they were made is a useful thing to be able to do," Leifheit explained. "My students are sophomores in art school, and I'd like them to be able to look at an image they like, be able to guess how it was made, and apply that knowledge to their own subject matter."