Nude And Rude
posted by Unknown @ 19.11.12
3 comments
London Art News
London Art News previews art exhibitions in London and reports on anything of special interest in the visual arts worldwide, from ice sculpture to body painting.
Monday 19 November 2012
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3 Comments:
Strange how adding some clothing to that well-known sculpture produces an erotic overtone.
Seems to confirm what naturists often say about total nudity. In itself it is not particularly erotic.
However add some adornment, no matter how little, and the imagination is piqued. Human beings are driven by the curiosity of what might be hidden.
There was an experiment where a clssical male nude had a fig-leaf that could be lifted. What people didn't know until later was that it activated a labelled light bulb in the next exhibition room.
However - even unadorned male statues that the public can touch usually show a different patina in that area.
It would be interesting to wire that modified Sheperd Boy and see what people lifted or touched when thinking themselves unobserved.
Indeed.
As a counterpart to their Tank Top, Elmgreen & Dragset also put a pair of underpants on Thorvaldsen's Jason with the Golden Fleece. It would be interesting to see how many people took a peek inside those pants.
I'm reminded that one of our great art institutions created a fig leaf for one of its naked male statues to spare Queen Victoria's blushes when she visited the gallery. But she wasn't as prudish as people supposed. When I visited Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, many years ago, I saw a statuette of a naked man with an erection!
Osborne House also appears to have a parian of John Gibson's "Narcissus" without a fig leaf. That is interesting as all but one of the Copeland production run for the Art Union of London had fig leaves. The naked exception was one retained by E B Stephens who created the original parian model.
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