Evening Standard refers to painting of older woman as "this ancient crone...ghastliness of ageing flesh... this repellent body."

Come on then Brian S, get your belly and cock out and we can all call you repulsive too. Inside and out. What a tosser. Why anyone listens to him any more is beyond me.

Surely no one takes the overly precious BS seriously do they? The man is so up his own fundament that he sees a lot of things through his own distorted lens.

I would hope they'd say pretty much the same as most posters on this thread, just because they are interested in fashion/beauty doesn't mean they are a bunch of raving agists. In fact, some of them may post here too!

I'm not sure if there's anything valid to be said about Brian Sewell being gay. There's that nasty concept of a woman being "fuckable" which hetero-sexists would say "Auntie" falls on the wrong side of--as opposed to the undoubtedly correct idea that she's an older lady who's been around and learned what she likes and how to share a good time, and any man who might win her favor would find himself rewarded and let's hope he deserves it. (Heteronormativity noted.)

What I'm saying is when it's a question of a woman outside the conventional standard of beauty, I don't think heterosexuals are necessarily kinder than gays. In fact I wouldn't count on women being kinder than men--what would they say about this picture in the Fashion & Beauty section of Mumsnet?

Quote of the week: 'Well he's just wrong'. Sometimes, no more needs to be said!

Elephants - You should be grateful that people pay him to write swill! The alternative is he'd have to get another job, and would you want to work with him? Imagine facing that awful cat-bum mouth every morning over the photocopier?!

Well he's just wrong isn't he? I don't know why people pay him to write such hate-filled, incorrect drivel though. She doesn't look dead, she looks very alive and proud and kind. I have had the privilege of meeting many inspirational women of that sort of age and the light in their eyes from good humour and years of experience makes me almost look forward to getting older. :)

Obviously there are very sexist men of all sexual orientations, who find women inherently disgusting. But I do think if one of these very sexist men is also gay, they have less reason to even pretend to respect women and regard them as people, because they're not hoping to shag them at any point.

I agree with HmmThinkingAboutIt, real beauty does lie in imperfections. The idealised standard of beauty peddled in the media is very bland, and so sort after and mimicked that people who possess it look quite ordinary. I think this is true for men as well as women. To me, a really beautiful face is one that has experience and personality written all over it.

I've been to art college too and have long believed that Brian Sewell is a prime example of my theory that people who can do, people who can't become art critics.

This reminds me very much of the bit in Zadie Smith's 'On Beauty' where she has a character who is studying art history and getting patronized by the (male) teachers, and she is looking at a picture of an old women that lots of male art critics have said is disgusting, and she's disagreeing. If you've not read it is worth a look ... I think it's interesting anyway.

All I can say is I learnt something very interesting today... That one's elbows are at the height of one's belly button...

And that BS doesn't like naked, old ladies!

I disagree that you need art knowledge to be able to criticise art.

x post

I went to art college and think you have a point

And thank you tethersend... I understand that she has more knowledge art wise than myself (as do you), you have both studied it. I just said it isn't look right to me.

I give up now...

Sorry spokennerd... I though you were the other poster and that you'd now decided to lecture to me about perspective!

Oh FFS... Look you've been to art college I get it! But that does not mean I can't have an opinion.

I give up! The picture is amazing, I am not an artist, I couldn't paint it. However it doesn't look right to me. You don't need to explain perspective... I'm not an idiot.

I will in future, in all matters art criticism, okay my opinions with you first because oh yes I forgot you went to art college and therefore no one knows more about art and art criticism than you.

GaryTank....it's the perspective that makes it look odd to you...her stomach sticks out but as the pic is front on, that makes the belly button appear higher.

Of course it's because he's gay. Also many gay men (not all) are much slimmer, fitter, healthier and better dressed and better off than straight men of the same age and seek a certain visual aesthetic which your average fat ugly bald middle aged/older British man long since abandoned.

We need many more pictures of older men. This is good one.
Sewell entitled to his views of course. We could make a modern art work - it would consist of the portrait in the middle, Sewells words across it and a naked Sewell with a gorgeous 25 year old young male lover. I haven't quite worked out where that would go.

We have his father, Peter Warlock, however to thank for some wonderful pieces, which I expect a lot of us and our children sing, particularly Christmas -

"But I think there is a tendency for some modern portraiture to be deliberately provocative to catch the eye/shock/offend etc., and doing 'nude dead lady' (year before last? Can't remember) or 'nude old lady' has become a bit of a short hand. And although I do actually find both those paintings very beautiful, as soon as it becomes shorthand for shocking and provocative we're almost back at Brian Sewell, if you see what I mean..."

Excellent point, Jodie.

Actually PooPoo, I am an art teacher and I would agree with Gary to some extent.

Since the portrait is painted in a realist style, whilst proportions may be exaggerated, this does render them incorrect. This may or may not be the artist's intention (incidentally, I don't think that the proportions are out in this work). If I was teaching a life painting class and a student was measuring proportions and made a mistake, it would be churlish to argue that it was the 'artist's intention'.

Of course, the artist can alter the proportions in any way he or she pleases and it is still art. However, it does not mean that it is figuratively correct or beyond criticism.

Wow! He thinks no one has an issue with page 3 girls . . . yeah we love them! We think they are a fantastic role model for young girls and so nice to see them being taught that their worth is in their tits!

Yeah fair point... If it was abstract! But it's portraiture. No?! I'd expect the proportions to be correct for a portrait.

Who are you to say that a portrait has to show anatomically correct proportions? Do you set the rules? Picasso painted portraits but they are not anatomically correct because that's not what he chose to do as the artist. Or is it that in "commanderland" a piece of art is only allowed to be allegedly inaccurate if it falls into the abstract category? Artists don't have to work to "categories" to keep the public suitably reassured that they are working within it.

OMG so i am!

christ it's like being famous! haha, and they dont even know i'm a bloke,
sorry if i misrepresented the MN women, assuming they did assume i'm a woman.

what blog?