The Quiet Times
I read an interesting article over at What We Saw Today about the conservative fear of nude art aptly named by Dr. L as "nudophobia." It made me think of my own experiences exhibiting nude photos.
As I've mentioned in past articles, I had a business. It was half high-end hair salon and half art gallery. I was in charge of the art gallery, one of my partners who was a stylist managed the salon, and her boyfriend/other partner managed the business end.
Every month we would switch out the art and have an artist's reception. In February, we decided to have a mixed media show (paintings, sculptures, glass work and photos) of nudes to coincide with Valentine's day. None were explicit, some were erotic and all were good art.
I posted three of my nudes and sold one and traded one. A number of the other artists sold pieces as well. It was the second best money making exhibit for our little gallery. The customers liked it, the stylists liked it and I never heard a complaint. We decided we would do the same thing next year.
A few months later, the local artists community organization sponsored their annual event called "open studios." Every participating artist put one piece up at the organization's gallery as a token of their work and then held a show at their own studio. My business offered to host three artists plus myself since we did not have studios to exhibit in. Two of us had nude works along with non-nudes to show. I was in charge of hanging all the work which took seven hours.
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| Lines to Her Heart |
The stylist partner said a couple of the other stylists complained about the nudes and she felt they were not appropriate pieces. I countered with the fact that the nudes were less risque than the ones we had at the Valentine's exhibit and they had no problems with them. She then said, "Yeah, but that was a special Valentine's show. This show is supposed to be about the local art community. We don't want to offend our staff and customers." I asked who complained and she would not tell me.
I was so mad at her for undoing my area of ownership and responsibility at her whim. I never told her how to run the salon, how dare she change my work without consulting with me first. I told her all that. She said she had to work there all day and did not want to have to deal with comments. What comments? At that moment, I knew the partnership was mortally wounded. I told her that I relinquished all artistic choice for future shows and would only hang work and sell art. She said that wasn't fair.
Just typing all this makes me mad about it again. This time though it makes me mad that the belief by her and others was nude art is only acceptable around a holiday that celebrates erotic love. Once again, nudity equals sex.
Look at the photo I posted of Candace Nirvana yesterday titled Holding the Moment. Candace is beautiful. She is nude. That photo is not erotic. It is actually tough for me to look at and I love it for that. I feel pain when I see it.
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| Dali and Nirvana 4 |
Photo note - I feel this photo from the Dali and Nirvana series is erotic and is art. I doubt my former partner would have wanted that one hanging in our business either. The nude photos I wanted to exhibit, but were removed, are the two above - Lines to Her Heart, and The Quiet Times.
Oh well. People. They're really something, they are.
ReplyDeleteThis is all too familiar, Karl. Why was the woman at our local art center happy to hang a nude show when she was competing with the first football game of the season but horrified to hang them when a high end show was proposed? How can people shift at will - oh, nudes are OK today but have to be gone tomorrow? And then use unethical means to be rid of them, such as the manipulative e-mail I described or just yanking them off the wall?
ReplyDeleteI am angry, too, and thank you for venting. This is ignorance and disrespect. A nude is natural. I suppose the problem these people have is with their own twisted nature. And that's how mad I am after reading this!