SCULPTED BODIES

The museum's fete to the physical is modeled on a similar affair held in 1976 at New York's Whitney Museum of Art, which featured its own strand of scholars who commented on legendary title-holders Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ed Corney as they flexed before a mob of art mavens and gym enthusiasts. At the Whitney, the three men were the artists and their bodies, the medium.

''There's a definite connection between strength and grace, although sometimes the two are not associated with one another,'' says Chetachi Egwu, an assistant professor of communications and performance studies at Nova who will sit with the panel at the Museum of Art. She speculates there will be some discussion on how gender affects our ideas of beauty, not only in terms of women bodybuilders but across popular American culture.

''Even this whole recent commentary on Michelle Obama and her arms -- she is challenging our perception of what a woman should be,'' Egwu says. ``Her arms just don't say she's in shape; they say she is a woman of power, someone to be reckoned with. Her arms are actually a metaphor. You can carry that idea over into any form of art.''

For museum curator Ruth Grim, the idea of bodybuilding as an art form is a reach. She's used to discussing art as an inanimate thing, not as a live body expressing the ideals depicted in classical painting and sculpture.

''It seems like more of a sport to me, but the desire to reproduce a perfectly muscled form has been with us for centuries.'' She concedes that bodybuilding celebrates the ancient idea of the human shape as a beautiful one. The surface of a work, then, shouldn't be taken for granted, whether found in the deeply textured exteriors of Rodin's bronzes or the well-wrought flesh of an athlete.

At the museum on yet another rain-filled afternoon, Carlos Rodriguez and Megan Aran eyeball the auditorium stage where they'll pose as art. Seating tops out at about 250, making the museum venue considerably smaller than the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, where both expect a couple of thousand to watch when they compete at the NPC.

A pretty and powerful blond, Aran, 25, confesses to a bit of stage fright. She has entered the Tall Class division of the Figure category. The championship will be her sixth event since she began training five years ago on a dare. But this is the first time she has worked with Michelangelo and the like. She does recall taking summer classes at the Lowe Art Museum as a young girl and visiting the occasional exhibit with her parents. Aran points to Botero's canvases as favorites.

``It's refreshing to see a painting based on women who are not size zero. I think a woman should have curves and a shape.''

LIKE A SUPERHERO

A contestant in the heavyweight division, Rodriguez, 32, has competed for half his life. He is soft-spoken and talks about the discipline of his sport. With his square jaw and hefty stature, he resembles some of the superheroes he liked to sketch as a boy.

``A lot of kids read comics, but I also liked to draw them. I liked to concentrate more on the anatomies. I'd take the image in my mind and transfer it on paper.

``Bodybuilders practice with mirrors instead of pages; you have to have an artistic eye and look at yourself critically to do this. You have to mold yourself over entirely. With enough practice, you know the right angles, how to hold your feet, your hands, your head. It seems easy, but it's the hardest thing to do."

Emma Trelles is an arts and culture writer in South Florida.

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