From the NY Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/08272009/news/regionalnews/mets_nude_bust_186681.htm
Quick! Cover the statues of Venus de Milo and Lady Godiva!
Nudity has been a staple of the visual arts since time began, but apparently the real thing is still too much for some people to handle. On Wednesday, a nude model was arrested after posing for a photo shoot at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was posing naked for a photographer in full view of visitors at a gallery in the museum's arms and armor department.
The model has been charged with two crimes: endangering the welfare of a minor and public lewdness, according to her lawyer. There are nude sculptures and paintings all over the museum. It's the height of stupidity accusing a live model of showing the same thing in a house of art. The photo shoot was conducted by Brooklyn-based photographer Zach Hyman.
This story set off my irony alarm. Particularly galling is the charge of endangering the welfare of a minor. In the photos you can see a mother and her son calmly watching the photo shoot. Perhaps they should have arrested the mother, as well. It's stories like this that make me proud to be an American.
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Comments
How totally stupid. I wonder, late a night, when the "common" part of "common sense" departed?
Oh the world we live in these days.
And speaking of which, I went to the Met and there weren't any nude people wandering around, I want my money back!
However, perhaps it would have made more of a statement had she been next to a nude painting or sculpture. I can see the mother and her son in the photos above and I am sure they weren't expecting nudity in the medieval gallery. Wouldn't have bothered me any, but I'm just saying...
;-)
On the bright side, the photographs of her, once developed, will be admissible to the museum.
So was the photographer arrested for anything? I would have thought that you would need a permit to take photos in the museum in the first place and that if they didn't have clearance for that - this would just as big of an offense.
But then again, I just saw a naked woman in the mirror when I got out of the shower, so maybe, then again, I can see their point! Oh the humanity!
Great Stuff~~Rated~~
That's a semi-myth. Previous attorney generals did the exact same thing (cover the statue, but they did it with rental curtains). The thing is, only conservative attorney generals were photographed from wierd angles (with the photographers almost lying on the floor) so that the tit of Lady Justice would appear on the AG's shoulder. Ashcroft had the curtains bought, because they were renting them. The bought curtains cost about the same as 4 rentals. The curtains cost $8k, and the rentals were about $2k apiece.
So...nudity in an art museum? I don't see how someone can be arrested for that. It's just silly.
But I sure would have loved to have been there!
I love the posture of both the boy and his (presumed) mother. So casual that they looked bored. You can almost read their thoughts. "Meh, when are the naked lady and photographer going to do something interesting?"
And the NY Post has a slideshow of various "dance" positions the woman is in and [gasp!] you can see the side of her breast in two of them. But her ass crack had to be pixelated for some reason that completely escapes me.
I think we should make nudity legal, but outlaw penises. Somehow, I'm guessing I won't have much support for that latter part. :-D
I would, though, like to see nudity made legal, but sexual predation punishment made even more draconian. In fact, not only would I like to see nudity legalized, I am in favor of National Naked Day!
On National Naked Day, everyone has to go around naked. To work, to school, to the grocery store...wherever. That's the rule. And if you call in "sick," well, you just have to come to work naked the following day, when everyone else will have their clothes on. So, there!
Of course, we'd have to do it in summer. It would really suck in January, in some parts of the country.
National Naked Day would help the economy and the cost of health care, as I can foresee the diet and exercise industries doing a booming business in the months before NND, and people losing weight, eating healthy, exercising and getting healthier to look their best on the Day. And maybe we'd learn to get over this ridiculous body shame that Americans have. Win/win.
Who's with me? :-D
On another subject: I would like to invite you to write about Art...why do we create art, do some arts forms become obsolete (not relevant to our century) can "serious" art ever be taken seriously by Pop culture---and who decides which art is too arty for Pop culture? I would like to invite you to leave your comments on my blog: http://open.salon.com/blog/berrycomposer
best wishes, Chuck