Sexuality was part of the attraction to the nude as a subject of art

Kenneth Clark noted that sexuality was part of the attraction to the nude as a subject of art, stating "no nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even though it be only the faintest shadow and if it does not do so it is bad art and false morals." According to Clark, the explicit temple sculptures of tenth-century India "are great works of art because their eroticism is part of their whole philosophy." Great art can contain significant sexual content without being obscene. However sexually explicit works of fine art produced in Europe before the modern era, such as Gustav Courbet's L'Origine du monde, were not intended for public display.

The judgement of whether a particular work is artistic or pornographic is ultimately subjective and has changed through history and from one culture to another. Some individuals judge any public display of the unclothed body to be unacceptable, while others may find artistic merit in explicitly sexual images. Public reviews of art may or may not address the issue.

Public reaction versus the art world
While the nude, and in particular the female body has always been one of the more obvious subjects of work in museums, in the United States nudity in art is a controversial subject when public funding and display in certain venues brings the work to the attention of the general public. Puritan history continues to impact the selection of artwork shown in museums and galleries.

At the same time that any nude may be suspect in the view of many patrons and the public, art critics may reject work that is not either ironic or fetishistic, and therefore cutting edge. “Artists who refuse to assault the body with stylishly perverse psychological or physical deformations are usually dismissed as being hopelessly out of tune with today’s art world.” Works that celebrate the human body are likely to be seen as too erotic by one group, and kitsch by the other.

According to Bram Dijkstra, attractive nudes by American artists have been relegated to storage by museums, with only rare special exhibits or publications in recent decades. Relatively tame nudes tend to be shown in museums, while works with shock value such as those by Jeff Koons are shown in cutting-edge galleries. Dijkstra says the art world has devalued simple beauty and pleasure, although these values are present in art from the past and in many contemporary works.

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Sexuality was part of the attraction to the nude as a subject of art 2015-02-24T14:54:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown