‘I wanted to reclaim the art of the nude’: Renee Saliba on Manet’s ‘outrageous’ painting Olympia

No one entity can control what a woman is. And just as Manet broke through a mould set before him, I could break through the mould set before me, Renee Saliba tells Christine Manby

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

It’s not often that a naked woman holds all the power, but when you look at Edouard Manet’s famous painting Olympia, it seems his model does exactly that. As she reclines on a chaise, wearing nothing but a black ribbon around her neck to emphasise the whiteness of her skin, her gaze is direct and challenging. Manet’s painting outraged Parisian audiences in the 1860s. Five years ago, it inspired artist Renee Saliba to harness the power of that challenging gaze in her own art and life.

Saliba grew up in Australia, where she spent a lot of time with her grandmothers, who had emigrated from Italy and Malta. “I was raised on old-world traditional Catholic views. My grandmothers believed in beautiful food and furniture. They always made sure to put on lipstick. But they were judgmental when it came to ‘how a lady behaves’. Our family was run according to strict gender roles. From an early age I was interested in running my own business but was encouraged to pick up more household duties while my brother was encouraged to join my father at work.”

“The women in my family struggled with depression and anxiety. There was always a conflict between self and society for the women in my family. My mother tried to start a number of careers but was always being called away to deal with the kids. Seeing her struggle encouraged me to build up a rebellious nature.”