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https://theconversation.com/pubic-hair-nudism-and-the-censor-the-story-of-the-photographic-battle-to-depict-the-naked-body-171236>
"I look at nude bodies all the time in my work. Art history is full of them –
painted, sculpted and photographed – and they fill the walls of galleries and
museums. I stand before them, projected on screens, as I lecture on the
subject. Earlier in my career, I posed on the other side of the artist’s easel,
as a life model, where I looked at artists looking at me. This dual perspective
has given me a privileged position, as both subject and surveyor of the nude.
Contemporary artists might critique the nude’s traditions and ideals, but the
naked body is still the ground on which debates play out. Nudes in art can now
take a range of forms and styles but one key aspect prevails in art galleries:
they are most likely to be of women and created by men.
Feminist activists the Guerilla Girls, who style themselves as the conscience
of the art world, have kept a running count of exhibited works by female
artists (around 4%) compared to the number of nudes that are female (around
76%) in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art for more than 30 years.
The disparities remain stark.
The naked body and its visual depiction has always attracted attention and
generated heated debate. What and who should be seen and shown, by whom and
where, form the basis of the social and moral codes that shape behaviour and
belief.
Today, the display of nudity remains contentious, particularly in the context
of social media. This is both in relation to photographs of “real nude adults”,
as Facebook describes them, and in relation to “artistic or creative”
depictions of nudity, which are wholly banned by Instagram and its parent
company."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
