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

And incidentally can you get off your arty high horse. I have only said that it didn't look right to me. It's an amazing painting. The artist is clearly extremely talented. But to me it just doesn't look right. Do you not accept criticism or interpretation, or is your opinion the only allowed opinion?

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

But as the MNer who mentioned the elbow to belly button height corrected me already, I've already accepted that.

GaryTankCommander With regard to the skill of the artist though, he does have a point though regarding her proportions. Her belly button for example is too high. It just doesn't look right. Her body look too big for her head.

to me it doesn't look realistic its looks totally out of proportion

Tell that to Picasso!

Its art! Its not a photograph. Its not necessary for art to be accurate anatomically to within a mm . . . that's because its ART! Its not an informational illustration in a doctors textbook.

Having been through art college and worked in the area for many years i have spent my life feeling frustrated by comments like this. Usually it more along the lines of "yeah but that's not proper art init" and "well i much prefer a nice picture of a vase of flowers".

Chairman, you're quoted on the blog!

From his description, I was expecting to see a woman like this and even then, his terminology remains offensive and ignorant.

I mentioned him being gay but it was to wonder whether it was because of this that maybe he wasn't used to what the norm is for women

Pip I know what you mean - although I am now thinking of Alan Partridge ("But Alan we'er all naked under our clothes." "I'm not." "Oh...but you are..." "No I'm not." "You are!" "No I'm not.")

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...

I love the BP Portrait Award. It is lovely to see so much excellent relatively traditional portraiture alongside all the conceptual/Turner stuff.

Jodie - great picture - but isn't it another body? Albeit with a hat and T-shirt.

There is nothing beautiful in 'perfection' to me. True beauty lies within all the little imperfections that make use unique. I find 'perfection' as described in the media as rather soulless and unattractive. When you see a bunch of models that all look the same how is that 'better'?

We are taught to hate the imperfections, but I really do think they can be the most attractive things about us.

Oh I read that article. Hateful and loathsome language. I think possibly BSewell is revolted by bodies generally.

I do however wish the BP Awards wouldn't bloody always go to bodies, dead or alive

For the record I'm not at all biased because I think this should have won oh no not biased at all

I can't see any homophobic language TBH. Lots of language critical of BS but not to do with his being gay.

Love the painting & delighted its won the award.

Surely the issue is that very few of us see naked bodies outside of our home or perhaps the gym? And those that we do see are too often in the media and therefore manipulated digitally, or the bodies have been manipulated physically to be 'pleasing' to whomever.

To see a realistic portrait/picture of a naked older person is extremely rare - everyone is comparing her to their own body!! Hence some of the comments ("I'm not like THAT!" etc)

"Old people's bodies generally look grim" So ageism's fine then Helxi?

I must admit I had to look twice to see the beauty. Because we are all conditioned to look for certain things - narrow waist, firm breasts etc blah blah. I can't assess my own body objectively as I tend to focus on certain parts that I think of as problems. But get that out of the way and she is beautiful - a body that has been lived in and used and a face that shows experience and humour.

I'd love to know why imperfection, which is the normal lot of the human body, is so shocking. BS's reaction was almost hysterical. I can imagine a lot of men reacting almost with hostility to that image.

Helxi, homophobia?

She has a lovely face and a fairly normal body for an elderly woman. Let's face it most of us wouldn't stand up to scrutiny from some prune-faced sourpuss like Mr Sewell.

So the viewer doesn't desire her, nor do they feel sympathy for her, all that remains is revulsion?

This tells us more about him than the painting. And the evening standard for giving him the space.

Is homphobic language the norm on MN, or only when it serve 'the cause'?

Old people's bodies generally look grim, this particular one just happens to be female. BS might rave about the 'mature masculine contours' of a 60 old man with a beer belly and a saggy arse, but I doubt it.

Not clicking as don't want to give him the hits.

TBH I on't mind the beauty standard as applied to the top end of the scale - beauty is nice and people notice it and always will. So 5% of people are fabulously beautiful, good for them. The issue is the other 95%, the ordinary folk, are denigrated as hideous. there are only 2 grades, beautiful or hideous, and it's based on sex appeal. In reality there is a massive cohort of Normal, with different non-sexual beauties expressed, where most of us fall. THe 95% shouldn't be despised or self despising, but that's the effect of articles like this, and the millions of times that's played out.

(I've a feeling that's the Whole Point of the beauty argument - but it's a bit of a lightbulb moment for me right now)

The painting is amazing, IMO.

The woman looks friendly, at ease, she is smiling, she has a wonderfully pretty face and her body is that of an older woman.

I love it.

I read the piece before looking at the picture and from what was described was expecting something exaggerated and caricature, in fact its rather beautiful in its realistic vulnerability.

I love that painting, it's beautiful. There's so much expression in her face, and she looks really comfortable with her body.

Not even gonna read the article in case he ruins it - I'll assume he's a twat.

Hey, someone better not do a painting of Brian Sewell...

Perhaps he is not coping well with his own aging body and is projecting on to other people.

Either way, he's wrong about the painting.

She look quite young to me. I thought it was going to be a picture of a 90yo, not someone 15-20years older than me.