To have a naked woman in my kitchen?

[SundaeGirl]

DH says she must go, she's weirding people out.

I've got a large print of a nude painting and she's framed and above the kitchen table. The DCs (5&3) are pretty immune to her but their friends do sometimes pass comment. To the trained artistic eye she does look post-coital but not to small children, obviously.

DH is adamant that everyone thinks it's me in the picture (no, I wasn't Modigliani's muse) and also that it's odd to have it where people are eating. I think nudes are normal and he's being prudish.

AIBU?

[Spuddybean]

If anyone is interested in why there are fewer nudes of men there are many books about it. The Nude by Kenneth Clark (no, not that one ) if i remember rightly has quite traditional views and John Bergers 'Ways of Seeing' is excellent. Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick is good and there are many others i can't think of off the top of my head.

Anyway, my exH and i had a huge oil painting i did of him, naked, legs akimbo, in our dining room for a while. DH has put up a photo of me nude and heavily pregnant on his desk, which is in the corner of our dining room.

[ArbitraryUsername]

I tell my boys how handsome they are regularly. Why wouldn't I? I also tell them that they are smart, talented, funny, and a variety of other positive things dependent on what's happening at the time. It hadn't occurred to me that people wouldn't tell their sons how lovely they look.

I wouldn't want a nude up on my walls anywhere really, male or female. It's just not the kind of art I like. DH has an obsession with mondo prints, so we got various movie posters in frames on the wall. I like some of them more than others. We've got some small studio ghibli postcards framed and on the wall next to DS2's bedroom and DS1 has manga/anime based posters up in his room. I'd like some picturebook prints, I think. Or something else that's quite graphic in style.

I don't really care about whether the things I'd choose to display are studenty or déclassé or anything else; I care about whether I like them (and in the boys' rooms, whether they like them). I think the issue in the OP's case may be that her DH doesn't like the print all that much and is embarrassed when other people come over, which is fair enough.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

kickass - ooh, now that sounds interesting. What are you reading about?

I think it's bollocks (see what I did there?) to turn your nose up at art you like just because other people like it too, but I do agree that there's an issue with female nudes and not male nudes. And with the way male nudes get painted, too.

Btw, if anyone wants to be really naff (I draw the line at writing 'declasse', not just because I can't do accents, but also because it's ... well ... naff), then it is possible to buy prints of famous paintings with the pubic areas of ladies made more appropriate to modern tastes.

I cannot begin to say what I think is wrong with that.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Btw, I got a right kicking for saying this on MN so I will tread carefully, but I have heard tell that John Berger is a bit of a sexist knob, despite his books.

[MurderOfGoths]

I think one of the reasons there are more female nudes than male is that the female nude is easier on the eye. I mean the penis is not going to win beauty contests is it?

Also, women are easier/more fun to draw. I know we always preferred female models to male in life drawing, curves are always easier than angles.

[MurderOfGoths]

Oh and OP, YANBU. We haven't got any nudes up at home yet, only because I haven't seen any I've fallen in love with. Or at least not seen large enough prints.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Well, I like penises. I don't think they're intrinsically more ugly than women's bodies, it's just we're socialized to think they are. Women aren't just 'curves' (though I do know what you mean goths). We're also quite furry and boney and so on.

Btw, men's bits are all over the margins of medieval books, so it's not an ahistorical thing, liking women's bodies best.

[ToomuchWaternotWine]

Ooh to a PP, I love Tamara Lempicka too! DH not so much grr.

bof are you the blonde or the brunette or both ? All are gorgeous and yes your husband is very talented. I have tagged the link so I can go back and have a proper look later today.

[catgirl1976]

I only like an erect penis

A flaccid one looks a bit

But I probably wouldn't want a big print of an erect on in my kitchen. Could be distracting

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

'Distracting' indeed.

Do blokes walk around in a constant state of 'distraction', do you reckon? I mean, the amount of female nudity there is.

Or do you think we just associate erect penises with imminant sex whereas nude women don't mean that any more (which I suppose says things about active/passive roles, doesn't it?).

[FairhairedandFrustrated]

BOF wow! Just wow!

Amazing talent, beautiful!

[catgirl1976]

I think you are right that an erect penis is associated with immenent sex much less so than a nude woman

Possibly the fact we so rarely see them has something to do with that. They are very rarely (ever?) shown in mainstream tv, art, films etc. Whereas naked women are everywhere

Then again, the erection is a lot more an obvious, visual indication of sexual arousal than those of women I suppose. If I see DH naked I don't automatically think "sex on horizon" whereas if he is sporting an errection, I generally do IYSWIM

[JustAHolyFool]

This is an argument that goes on in our house - not about nudes, but about prints. Every time partner gets a new one, up it goes. The house is full of the fucking things, most of which I hate. He has about a million Russian propaganda posters, it looks like we live in a student flat.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

cat - yep, I agree with that, completely.

Also, PMSL at 'sporting an erection'.

I'm sorry, I'm clearly terribly immature.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I have a mix of art on my walls and a very small budget so i like my schiele, Van Gogh chair and my brothers landscapes (he is a living artist), my BiL is also making a living as a local artist so I have sympathy with the viewpoint thatyou should support living/ local artists rather than famous ones. But I am not in a position to put my money where my mouth is until I have an income again.

The prints of famous art works are placeholders until i can afford the originals i want.

Nudes in the kitchen, fine, bil has nude self portrait in hallway, which is nice.

[catgirl1976]

"Sporting" made me too

[hackmum]

I'm prepared to accept that John Berger is a bit of a knob in real life, however "Ways of Seeing" is fantastic, and it did make me think about art in different way, so I would recommend it.

I can't make up my mind about the OP's question - I think we need a link to the pic in question.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Fair enough, hack ... just mentioning the fact.

I like the idea of supporting living artists, btw ... I don't see it as incompatible with having other things on your walls, though.

[kickassangel]

at one point in our lives we knew an artist who ran a small shop near us. It was great. We got 'mates rates' on anything we got from him so we have some limited editions of prints and a couple of pieces of real art.

now we know no-one so have to pay full whack on anything, but there is a big art fair near us every year so we take dd and she has some small bits up in her room. She likes things that are pink (sigh).

[SundaeGirl]

Here she is

[MrsWembley]

Which one?

P.S. BOF - absolutely gorgeous, particularly the ones in the red dress!

[JusticeCrab]

There's nothing wrong with a nud Modigliani. It's not a Keeley Hazell calendar so it shouldn't be treated like one.

[JustAHolyFool]

Really, Justice? What's the difference exactly?