Demi's Birthday Suit - Artistic Perspective

Artistic Perspective

Gene Newman considers the body painting of Moore to be the introduction of modern body painting to the world. Although willing to credit Moore and Gair with the rebirth of bodypainting in a San Francisco Chronicle story, the "makeup artist, wig maker and stylist" Jim Ponder had difficulty calling interest in bodypainting a trend because it traces back to the "beginnings of man". Joanne Gair has described the painting as a stylized reference to Botticelli, since the sinuous pose is reminiscent of the central figures in both Primavera and The Birth of Venus. The Amazon.com product description for Gair's book calls her participation in this photoshoot as her "defining moment". Soon after the release of the magazine Gair became such a pop culture icon that she was considered for an Absolut Vodka Absolut Gair ad campaign according to a story in The New York Times. The work is considered to be an example from the most sophisticated end of the bodypainting spectrum which extends all the way to Henna tattoos.

Some sources have claimed that the work is a derivative of preceding works. Playboy published a photo with similar bodypainting, with a necktie, suit jacket and similar pose, in its March 1968 issue, as part of a feature on bodypainting.