I hate the laws of physics, especially where they apply to blowing fabric attached to points. This falling figure was working so well up till now, great motion, a horrible chaotic feeling and gravity, but I can’t get this damn blindfold to work properly! does anyone want to volunteer to be pushed off a building so I can photograph them and get the physics right? no, I think I am just going to have to tie my poor husband up, blindfold him and blow a hairdryer at the fabric until I can get it to work. and yes, this is the same blindfold piece I was working on weeks ago..
Archive for March, 2008
31
Mar
08
laws of Physics Cap’n
27
Mar
08
Boundless Changes
Boundless Gallery have undergone some more changes to their site including a family filter and the opportunity for the artists to choose their own urls. boy is that cool! I now have registered http://nude.boundlessgallery.com/ to go directly to my profile page. I love being able to register such cool urls with these sites, it’s good for SEO and so easy to remember.
actually, because this subdomain is a redirect, is it good for SEO? I don’t know.. does it make a difference?
26
Mar
08
Yessy
http://www.yessy.com/nudes
I have given in and started selling on Yessy as well. It is cheaper than Boundless on a yearly basis, but it is also uglier. I do, however, like the searching and the stats viewer. There is a lot more traffic on Yessy but the flipside is there are a lot more artists as well. it has more of an international flavor which I like.. we shall see how it goes. I am concerned about the outlay but other artists assure me it is worthwhile. surprisingly no-one has snapped up the very cool url http://www.yessy.com/nudes so it is now mine!
25
Mar
08
artwork pricing changes
I’m restructuring and changing my prices and pricing format. the glazed ochre works are going to be priced slightly higher than the regular ochre pieces because about a week’s more work goes into them. all pieces will now be on the same scale as well, before I had works on a sliding scale per inch depending on size, now all works of a certain medium are going to be the same price per inch all the way through.
I am very nervous about this because you don’t want to change your pricing too often, but I think it is time to raise them slightly and to even out the pricing structure. the new prices will go live on the 1st of April
The row escalated earlier in the week when activists petitioned Christie’s, the world’s best known and largest arts business and auction house, not to oversee transactions of any of Husain’s work.Christie’s rejected the demand, with spokesperson Sara Fox saying, “Art and culture embraces multiple interpretations and re-interpretations of religious and ethnic symbols that are often highly individual expressions.”Narain Kataria, president of the IAIF, told rediff.com, “Husain is a Muslim who was born in India, and he knows the significance of what he’s done. His hatred for Hindus is obvious in his actions and vulgar art, if you can call it art. It’s borderline pornography, not anything a normal person would consider art. By painting vulgar, sexual images of our great goddesses like Durgadevi, Lakshmi, and Saraswati, he deliberately insults Hindus’ sentiments. It’s as if he’s insulted our mothers. Why has he not painted these images of Christ? Of Mary? Why is he running from India? It’s obvious he is a criminal and a coward.”
New York: Husain’s paintings auctioned amid protests
The Christie’s auction of Maqbool Fida Husain’s works proceeded on Thursday amid protests and demonstrations outside it’s doors. Protesters were vehemently disputing the sale of works by India’s most notorious artist. MF Husain, exiled from India, came under fire for his depictions of Hindu deities in the nude – and action that has enraged Hindu extremists, leading to his exile, cases of obscenity and the seizing of his assets.
The Auction proceeded after letters of protest and finally a full protest during the auction itself. The contested works sold despite the protest with one, Battle of Ganga and Jamuna, selling for 1.4 Million.
What saddens me about these protests is that they seem to be becoming a Hindus versus Muslims argument. if you read the above quotes one of the key factors that all the extremists can agree on is that he’s a Muslim and therefore hates Hindus and is purposely trying to inflame them. now, my understanding is that not only have Hindus had in the past a greater tolerance for nudity than they do now but that Muslims have always had a greater problem with nudity in general. why is this coming down to religion? especially when one religion is known for it’s long history of nudes and nude art and sculpture and the other considers bare arms to be indecent? I will never understand this war, and I think it is developing into a war. The Hindu extremists responsible for the protest seem to have an exaggerated view of propriety and pornography. MF Husain’s works frequently depict Hindu deities nude, I can see where that can be a source of contention if he displayed them in particularly sexual or pornographic poses, but most of his images are very peaceful, nudity is almost pure in them. Some of his most contentious works seem to me to be no worse than traditional hindu depictions of these same deities. is it in fact because Husain is Muslim that these depictions are forbidden to him or is it because the extremists responsible for denigrating him are trying to change Hinduism from it’s roots? The current news from India, laced with protests and incarcerations for artists, says yes.
There appears to be a division between Hindus however, here is a quote to end on from another Hindu with a different view of Husain’s paintings and the Christie’s Auction.
But inside the auction room, one Hindu man, wearing white and saffron silk kurta pyjama, a collector and purveyor of Husain’s art, termed the protest “a circus and a joke”.
Asked about a Husain’s painting being auctioned, titled ‘The pink elephant and Maya’, which shows a nude Maya on a bed with a pink elephant on her knee, the art-lover said, “It’s a beautiful, thought-provoking piece. I don’t see anything offensive. I’ve been a practising Hindu all my life.”
20
Mar
08
Feckles Down
Luke from Boundless has Sent a message assuring me that “all nudes have not been blocked now, and never will be. There is not going to a be a lumped together section of all the pieces in nudes hidden away in a ‘dark corner’. There will also not be a system where any artist can ‘flag’ a piece and have it hidden.”
So no narky emails from me today 
. Thanks guys for staying strong in the face of extreme spamming and bitchiness from so many artists. The easy thing to do would be to give in. I am glad to say they are not doing that and I sincerely hope that it will not be the case in the future. I am delighted that they are working so hard to please all sides. it’s just that some sides seem so very irrational, inconsistent and infectious I was very afraid that they would win from sheer force of noise. I was preparing to create noise of my own, I am perfectly capably of raising a real, and very public, stink- but I never wanted to aim something at the team at Boundless, I genuinely believe they do their best, they are not the people I was angry at. censorship is never the rational option. but it never ceases to amaze me how people can become so irrational over such a small issue as nudity.
20
Mar
08
Declaration of war against art?
Hot on the heels of Christies deciding to continue with the auction of MF Husain’s works comes this letter. I have included it here in it’s entirety and will refrain from too many editorial comments at this time.
CHRISTIE ART GALLERY, New York,Kind Attn. Ms Sara Fox, Spokesperson,This refers to news regarding your decision regarding withdrawing of Hussain’s paintings from auction on 20th March 2008. We once again request you not to auction M.F. Hussain paintings due to following reasons.The whole world is aware that M.F. Hussain has drawn nude and obscene paintings of Indian Deities and Bharatmata. Thus he has hurt religious and National sentiments of crores of all Indians. More than 1,250 police complaints have been lodged against him and lot of court cases are going on against him throughout India. He is absconding from India and not facing Court Trials. He has been accused of outraging religious sentiments, promoting enemity between different religious groups, selling obscene material and disturbing National integrity, thereby committing offences under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. He has also been accused of committing offenses under section 2 of the prevention of Insults to National Honour Act on account of certain paintings of Hindu Deities and naked Bharatmata. Nowhere in India we allow Hussains paintings exhibitions/auction.
At this stage you are glorifying an accused person by auctioning his painting and hurting national and religious sentiments. No proud Indian throughout world will tolerate your support to Anti-Hindu and Anti-National painter M.F. Hussain . By doing this you are starting enemity and hatred amongst various religious groups and may lead to Law and order situation for which you will be responsible.We are taking up this issue with American Embassy in India and Indian Government.
We have full faith in American Democracy but at the same time your democratic system will not glorify such a accused person who has no courage and respect to comeback to his motherland and justify his act of creating indecent Art, which can be equated only with that of infamous Denmark cartoonist who is also hiding himself.
There has been news that infamous Denmark cartoonist is looking for someone to arrange auction of infamous cartoons. Your expression and love for artistic freedom can only be justified if you arrange this auction too.
Please acknowledge and inform action taken.
For Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Mumbai
S.G. Vatkar
Read More…
There is a protest scheduled and I have no doubt that the embassies will get involved as well. I am delighted that the site that has published this letter and the protest details has also included a list of all of MF Husain’s more ‘offensive’ paintings. this strikes me as ironic really, the whole thing strikes me as ironic, fuelling the fire of this one artist’s reputation, demand and exposure.
Edit 01/04/08: The image source for my original thumbnail has been taken down. I have changed it to one from this source instead with a link.
Turmoil – 12 x 12 Oils on Canvas
by Jennie Rosenbaum
Boundless Gallery have undergone many changes of late. a new look, some snazzy interface changes for it’s artists and a new tabbed front page with lots of options to discover work. Failing to be satisfied, many of the artists for whom Boundless has tirelessly worked are now calling for censorship of nudes. due to one explicit example that made it’s way onto the new ‘discover an artist’ feature that randomly includes artist’s images from all over the site, there is now a demand for site-wide censorship of nudes. Some have said that they should be kicked from the site entirely, others have said that they should just only appear in searches, not on the front page, Some are saying that there should be an adults only section, and others say that they should be blocked to non members.
I am furious. most of the artists screaming for blood are speaking in very general terms lumping all nudes in with explicit nudes. Boundless has responded by limiting all nudes from the front page. it appears that anything tagged as a nude is not shown on the front page. including the bestsellers tab. you can imagine how that affects me. and if some of the proposed changes go ahead I will be relegated to the doghouse with all other nudes, both tasteful and explicit. I will receive less exposure, less chance for new discoveries and will have an automatic association with sexual nudes. it has been stated that people who like nudes search for nudes, but I have had people who don’t like nudes discover and love my work. through boundless no less. People who don’t search for them specifically. and now that will be the only way to find them. oh, I am still there a couple of pages deep. but I am suffocating already under this unfair censorship. No customers have complained about nudes on the front page, all of this is coming from the artists.
I do not believe my works are not appropriate for families. I would not have any issues with my children (planned) or my grandparents seeing my work. I have seen kids at my exhibitions with no problems. I believe my works are family friendly and if Boundless gives into this they will be pandering to the notion that all nudes are wrong, evil and always sexual in nature. they will be enhancing this image and tarnishing the reputation of nudes everywhere. I will be drafting a formal letter of protest to Boundless tomorrow. I urge you all to show your support by signing it in the comments or forwarding it onto boundless as well.
18
Mar
08
controversial nudes sell
M.F. Husain’s The battle of Ganga and Yamuna
In a letter to Christie’s, the Indian American Intellectual Forum, which has joined hands with Hindu Janjagruti Samiti on the campaign against Husain, said the artist has gained ignominy and notoriety in India by painting several Hindu gods and goddesses in derogatory forms. As part of Christie’s New York auction March 20 of modern and contemporary art from South Asia, Husain’s paintings are expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of them, “The Battle of Ganga and Yamuna” is estimated to rake in $600,000-$800,000. The forum president, Narain Kataria, has also sent a power point presentation to Christie’s, highlighting “Husain’s deliberate distortion and degradation of Hindu culture”. “Seven cases have been registered against him and six courts have issued arrest warrants against him. More than 28,000 people have signed a petition condemning Husain for his malicious attempts to vilify Hindus,” Kataria claimed. He added that Husain stood “condemned by the Indian Parliament for painting Mother India in the nude”. It was thus unbecoming, Kataria told Christie’s, on the part of the reputed art gallery to associate with Husain.
Read More…
Let us suppose for a moment that I understand the position on the Hindu extremists in India who are responsible for the exile of an artist. at what point do they cease having jurisdiction over his works? Not content with already exiling the artist they now feel a need to try to make him a pariah in other countries – especially one that is well known for it’s laws on freedom of expression, speech and religious freedom.
Christie’s has certainly never been shy about some of it’s more controversial auctions and this one appears to be no different. because Christie’s understands the concept of freedom of expression. I also suggest that they understand the concept that controversy sells as well.. Thanks to his beliefs, artworks and subsequent exile, MF Husain is now very hot on the primary and secondary markets. while I am sure that isn’t the reason for his controversial works, it can’t hurt. I wonder if the extremists realize that they are fueling his prices and his demand by creating more controversy?
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