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

[Bidisha]

www.bidisha-online.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/this-ancient-crone.html

Was there a hint of sarcasm in that last post?

:o

I think he's just revolted by women isn't he

I was wondering if he had seen less real older women because he is gay.
I mean I'm 31 and still not too saggy or wrinkly but I'm not the 18 year old he met and he's seen that progression and will see me as things so further south just as I will see him age. So he won't be freaked out by it. But if your only experience of women's bodies are rare or are the ones projected by the media you're going to see things differently.
(I may be wrong he may see
Older women naked all the time for some reason or other I don't actually know)

Sorry I had put dh had met but rephrase the sentence and now it looks like I'm talking bout meeting Brian s

Yes bronze, it did sound as if Brian Sewell had seen you naked!!

Was about to chuck you out of the sisterhood

I read the description to DH and then showed him the painting. He was shocked. It's just a perfectly normal older woman not the gruesome hag described. He's bewildered that anyone can have a career in art criticism when they're so obviously crap at describing things accurately. It's an offensive description, but worse it's offensive and inaccurate.

Blimey. I read the description and thought it would be one of those grotesque meaty nude paintings - Francis Bacon or Jenny Saville style.

Then I scrolled down and was that it was a sympathetic portrait of a perfectly normal somewhat saggy woman,just like me.

What a cock.

The business of her head looking too small .....I think it is that lollipop headed celebrities have become the norm.

Brian Sewell has, er, issues. I would actually rather read him slagging off perfectly unexceptionable paintings of naked women's bodies than lingering in gruesome detail over depictions of male genitalia ('the glans, glistening softly in the delicate chiaroscuro while a light shadow falls over the scrotum' etc etc - honestly, he often writes things like this).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

Helxi, homophobia?

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.

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

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)

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

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

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.