NCAC Censorship News Issue #60:
Art Censorship : Female Nudity, Not in
Our Community
After the Raleigh (North Carolina) City Council decided to “preview” some art
works that had been booked for exhibit in a city-owned building, the gallery yielded
to pressure and booted the artist and her erotic works from the show. The gallery
committee had wrestled for several weeks with how best to present the exhibit,
which includes images of female nudes interspersed with handwritten text describing
an apparent sexual fantasy. The committee had decided to cover internal windows
and restrict access to keep children from wandering in. But that proved inadequate
after two civic leaders complained to the Raleigh mayor that the exhibit was “pornographic.”
The artist, Elin O’Hara Slavick, is on the University of North Carolina faculty.
Nudity, Male Version
Meanwhile, after learning that a scheduled art show featured paintings of nude
men, the board of the Barnwell County Museum in South Carolina voted to lock the
gallery, and asked painter Robert Sherer to remove his work. “The show is not
appropriate for the town,” according to museum board chairwoman Ann Haygood.
“They’re not outrageous,”
said the artist, referring to the paintings. “These are academic studio paintings
of models in a pose. You’ve seen these a thousand times, but usually they’re of
women. It’s actually pretty boring.”
Nudity, Co-ed Version
In Ruidoso, New Mexico, an artist who was sculpting a large naked man and woman
in a driveway outside her studio is facing charges of displaying sexually explicit
material to minors. “I’m going to fight this because I’m not fond of censorship,”
said Candyee Garrett, the sculptor. “I can’t believe that people get this riled
up about art. I’m really speechless.”