a narrow view of nudity

Of course there is a long tradition of the female nude, but it’s one that is by and large repudiated by feminist painters and theorists; the reviled “male gaze”, all that…. a response to Germaine Greer’s recent article on women’s art and to the Moran prize winner this article is naive and clearly written by someone woefully ignorant of art and art history…. for recent news go and look at Nancy “beth” reid’s self portrait , look at moran winner Fiona Lowry’s with What I Assume You Shall Assume , (to pick two recent newsworthy pieces) really really look at them, don’t avert your eyes- look into theirs and try to see everything they wanted to say.

More on the Student Art competition nude scandal

In a followup to the recent story about robbing two young artists of a competition win and prize money for daring to enter nudes, several Virginian columnists have had their say about their feelings on the matter…. And don’t pre-screen 600-plus entries down to the 62 that De Groft was given to choose from, leave in “inappropriate” art, then call for a do-over when your juror makes his choice…. [From Censoring winner of student art show is in poor taste — Arts and Culture, Virginia, College of William and Mary — dailypress.com ] And you know you may have made a bad decision when an employee columnist from the newspaper that started it all has this to say: We in the news business go to great lengths to shield minors.

Teen’s nude loses art award to hypocrisy

[From Art lovers raise money for teen who lost Student Gallery title | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com ] Three separate judges were brought in to choose a winner before the Pilot would finally accept one that was not nude in any way…. “We honestly don’t believe those two pieces are appropriate to be held up as the winners of a high school art show, because they do depict the nude,” Pam Smith-Rodden, director of marketing for The Pilot, said at the time…. Reid’s work is very discreet, There are almost no images of it but to me the pose is interesting and there is certainly nothing objectionable showing (no more than hipster pants reveal on a daily basis anyway) It is ridiculous that the competition was changed based on the entrants and laughable that judges were hired only to have their decisions overthrown.