“This is not pornography”

[jen337]

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

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

“Officers went to the gallery after complaints that the painting, which features a naked woman wearing cowboy boots, her legs splayed to reveal a black triangle with pink wool on top, is not art but pornography.”

“Police had asked the painting be moved further inside the gallery, but Harris said she was “making a stand”. She said she was shocked to be told about the complaints, but that support online had been “massive” – “around 90% pro and 10% anti”, she said.”

Discuss.

My view is that the artist is correct, there’s nothing intrinsically offensive about a naked body, and there are are many depictions of the female form deemed acceptable, the famous and well loved little mermaid and countless other statues in public places, the many works of William Etty that hang in major galleries, Manet’s Olympia, etc. Although, I will admit this is not particularly “good” art, it’s still valid, and it might will have been deliberately placed to be provocative and court controversy, in which case it’s worked and highlights the hypocrisy.

No, but it at least needs to have a go at being art.

How?

By being pretty?

Can't believe these responses.

OMG. This is even more ghastly and hideous and minging than the painting in the OP. Egon Scheile! Give something a fancy exotic name, stick it in a posh art gallery, and all the sheeple will fall for the Emperor's New Clothes bolleux. It looks like a 12 year old boy did it (blindfolded.)

I see a 1970s plastic monster pencil topper.

You think Schiele is worse than that picture?🤔

No (although you seem to have a weird obsession with that concept) - by being something which has taken some skill out talent to produce. Not a painting which looks as if it was knocked up by someone who failed GCSE art.

Would you want your 11/12yr old son to see it? For example. Whether it's porn or not is by the by. It does not need to be in the window. Not very classy.

I agree it should be inside. It’s not a natural pose so looks like she’s about to masterbate to me.
The more I look at it the more amateurish it becomes.
The hard red lines outlining the body.
The boots! No sole never mind a heel on them. Why are her feet that big? I can’t stop looking at the boots.

I guess all art is subjective, but some of it is so hilariously shite that it's embarrassing that some people call it 'the work of a genius,' and fawn over it, and pay big bucks for it, and think they're smart and clever and edgy if they say they like it.

Like Tracey Emin. Everything she has ever produced is ludicrous crap, yet she is a famous artist. I don't think Banksy is that good either really.

Marginally more shite yes.

Here we go - especially for ChardonnaysBeastlyCat: Not pretty. Amazing art.

You deduced I have a weird obsession with something from two posts?

Everyone has an opinion.

Amazing art? A matter of opinion.

You asked whether art had to be pretty.

I responded that no, it didn’t, but it did have to try to be art.

You responded: How? By being pretty?

So since I’d already said no, art didn’t have to be pretty but you INSTANTLY circled back there, I’m thinking yeah, weird obsession.

I think if it had been inside the gallery - i.e. a viewer would need to choose to view it - there would have been no complaints. It's the fact that it's in the shop window which is in poor taste - in the same way that an advertising poster in the street featuring a naked woman with legs splayed like this wouldn't be allowed.

The OP picture is really disturbing me with the spread legs & cowboy boots.

It brings to mind Taylor Swift concerts where almost all the young female fans there were wearing cowboy boots as part of their outfit.

I feel disgusted looking it, it’s like an Incel who hates Taylor Swift attempted to paint a picture of how he views women & girls who like Taylor Swift as nothing more than sex objects.

Especially because of the stabbing attack that killed three girls revealed the incel hatred for Taylor Swift. The picture is pretty offensive to me if I’m being honest, and not for nudity but because of the message it is giving with the symbolism of cowboy boots being linked to Taylor Swift.

The painting is categorically not a pornographic image. Anyone who says otherwise is factually incorrect.

I wouldn’t call it pornography but I wouldn’t want to walk past it with my kids and have them see it, might as well just get a copy of playboy and open it to a page where a models legs are akimbo and display that. I wouldn’t call it art I call it trashy and perverted to put it in view of youngsters

If pornography is "printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement" would we need to know the artist's intentions to say without doubt that this is not a pornographic image?

Yeah it is. The definition of pornography includes licentious painting or literature.

• Doesn’t have to be pretty
• you don’t have to like it (I don’t)
• it’s a painting of a woman with a black triangle between her legs
• women’s bodies aren’t intrinsically offensive and this doesn’t even have any genitalia

why couldn’t ‘an 11 yr old boy’ see it?

(I’m ignoring the batshit Taylor Swift reference)

Why is it in the window? To create drama, maybe polarise opinions and create chat about it. It's purely a marketing opportunity the gallery/shop owner/artist has taken.

It's distasteful. I'd hate to have to walk passed that everyday. She might feel she's in the right but ffs have some decorum!

That is only the first part of the definition. If it meets any of the 4 parts, it’s pornography:

1. Sexually explicit writing, images, video, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
2. Lurid or sensational material. Often used in combination.
3. "violence pornography."
4. Licentious painting or literature; especially, the painting anciently employed to decorate the walls of rooms devoted to bacchanalian orgies.