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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/20/police-called-to-hay-on-wye-gallery-after-it-puts-painting-of-naked-woman-in-window

83 replies

RaspberryParade · 21/09/2024 07:04

Fgs! Drag acts can be as obscene as possible in front of children and tras get their knobs out on live tv, but godforbid a so obviously non sexualised barely representational painting of a naked woman be in a gallery.
And I thought Hay on Wye was full of Guardian arts luvvies and that Sheelah Nae Gigs would be right up their street.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/20/police-called-to-hay-on-wye-gallery-after-it-puts-painting-of-naked-woman-in-window

Police called to Hay-on-Wye gallery over painting of naked woman in window

Curator Val Harris refuses to move work by Poppy Baynham after residents complain

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/20/police-called-to-hay-on-wye-gallery-after-it-puts-painting-of-naked-woman-in-window

OP posts:
TheAutopsyOfMNCorpus · 21/09/2024 08:48

The artist needs to study anatomy and needs to do a lot more life drawing.

L'Origine du monde (1866) is far superior to this pale imitation IMO.

RufustheFactualReindeer · 21/09/2024 08:40

i would not be happy at all seeing that in a shop window

DeanElderberry · 21/09/2024 08:05

She isn't naked. Unlike the Sheela-na-gigs.

She's wearing boots, which codes her as sexualised, as does displaying her among the wares in a shop window.

LlynTegid · 21/09/2024 07:30

I am not convinced it is non-sexualised. Having something in a window is different from inside a gallery or shop where people have made a positive choice to enter.

ReadWithScepticism · 21/09/2024 07:25

I'd be a bit pissed off by seeing that in a window, too. Regardless of the painter's intentions, its spread-leg cowboy-booted presence on a shopping street is all of a piece with the parodic sexualisation and objectification of women's bodies on which drag/crossdressing thrives.

In a gallery or some other appropriate context it could perhaps be contextualised by the surrounding imagery etc to subvert its superficial message, but on a high street it is just more lads mag.
It's not as if it does anything much with the sexualised pose, it just replicates what is so often available as porn.

WarriorN · 21/09/2024 07:25

Well they best not look up next time they're in a 12 c church

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/20/police-called-to-hay-on-wye-gallery-after-it-puts-painting-of-naked-woman-in-window
Emptyingthenest · 21/09/2024 07:17

Her legs are spread wide open and it’s in a window that presumably kids and others walk past all day. Hay isn’t just Guardian reading adults. It’s hardly surprising some complained and I don’t see the link to the trans coverage on TV. Parbets can choose not to turn on the TV but can’t turn off a shop window. The police haven’t been able to act they are just monitoring the situation because people have complained. People complain when lewd stuff is on TV but it’s easier to get traction with complaints about a local art gallery window display.

RaspberryParade · 21/09/2024 07:05

Ooops didnt mean to put the link in the heading🙄

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