In August of 2009, I did a show at a local art gallery, and included in the show was a triptych of three nudes. One included a penis.
The pose was relaxed… seated. A figure study. You know, the kind from a life drawing class. The brushstrokes were loose, the colors were bright, not human skin colors. (continued)
I found some photos from the opening reception for that show
Let me point out that I am very sensitive to inappropriate sexual expression. My daughter was sexually abused prior to coming into my family a couple of years ago. Because someone used their body in a criminally improper way, doesn’t mean we should deny the existence of bodies across-the-board. We need to face things in order to release their grip on us and move on.
After the show was over and had been taken down, I heard that someone (I believe it was one of the board members) made a complaint about that painting, though no one said anything to me.
The comment made after my show has gnawed at me for twelve years because I haven’t examined it until now.
It really makes me wonder what people have against the human body.
I personally do not find the human body offensive. I don’t find it inappropriate.
Besides, this was not a penis. This was a few marks of acrylic paint. True, they were intended to represent a penis. Not an erect penis. It was not a sexual image.
It’s the amazing power of art that takes a few lines of paint and lets everyone see a penis where there really isn’t one at all! Even our ancient ancestors realized that they could make a few lines with a stick from the fire on a cave wall, and it would conjure in everyone’s mind, the thought of a buffalo.
Maybe the person who made the complaint doesn’t like penises and thinks no one should have one, see one or like them, either.
This wasn’t a painting about a penis, it was a painting about a human, but the complainer made it all about the penis. In fact, he or she made the entire show about the penis.
I remember another show in that same gallery featuring photographs of naked women when no one took issue.
Is Michelangelo’s David inappropriate? Is it pornography? There are probably those who think it is. I’m glad they are not the ones curating global public art.
My show brought in a good deal of money for that gallery, and it was a show that I was proud of.
They haven’t had me back.
Thank goodness I do not care one bit about uptight, self loathing, modern day puritans who fail to see the beauty of the human body. They attempt to blind the rest of the world along with them in some misguided moral superiority.
Look at the history of art. You don’t have to look very far to see that the human form has a rightful place on gallery walls.
It’s stupid that I’m even defending this, and unfortunate that we have such uneducated people serving on art boards in our county. It’s not really an art board at all, but a historical society board, so there you have it.
As often happens, I find that the detail that hooks me is attached to another, larger issue.
I can circumvent all of the arts organizations in this county, be they commercial or non-profit and find success in my art on my own terms. I’m not interested in the petty agendas, the broken promises, the fragile, puffed up egos and fund raisers. For me, what’s happening is a grass roots movement where artists are joining hands in support of one another without the ever more irrelevant organizations.
You don’t need all that red tape to be an artist. You don’t need the bureaucracy. Well, I don’t.
I inherited my grandfather’s printing press. I have a friend who is a master printer, and generous with advice. I have another friend who loaned me a potter’s wheel and enabled me to get started on my lifelong dream of making ceramics. He saw my passion for it. I have painter friends and cartooning friends. I have writing friends and drawing friends, and we share what we know and what we do with each other. For free. And it takes away nothing from any of us, because what comes out of us, comes out with our unique flavor. Each one of us and the world is richer when we collaborate and love and inspire not only each other… the branches keep reaching out and dividing and reaching out some more.