Gallery removes naked nymphs painting to 'prompt conversation'

[CallMePaul]

As a Council Tax payer in Manchester, I object very strongly to my money being wasted in this way. It appears that the removal of this work of art (one of Manchester Art Gallery's most iconic pieces) has been videoed for a forthcoming exhibition by a performance artist called Sonia Boyce, a new name to me but I understand she is a major figure in this branch of art and has an MBE to her name. This type of censorship is utterly inexcusable - nobody has to look at the painting who feels that he/she may be offended - and should be punished by the dismissal without notice of Clare Gannaway and others who assisted in this censorship. I would urge everyone to boycott the Sonia Boyce exhibition, which starts later this month. If the painting is not restored to its rightful place very quickly it may become an issue in May's Council election.

More info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42904024. There is no mention of this on the Manchester Art Gallery site: http://manchesterartgallery.org

[MrGongGong]

As a Council Tax payer in Manchester, I object very strongly to my money being wasted in this way. It appears that the removal of this work of art (one of Manchester Art Gallery's most iconic pieces) has been videoed for a forthcoming exhibition by a performance artist called Sonia Boyce, a new name to me but I understand she is a major figure in this branch of art and has an MBE to her name. This type of censorship is utterly inexcusable - nobody has to look at the painting who feels that he/she may be offended - and should be punished by the dismissal without notice of Clare Gannaway and others who assisted in this censorship. I would urge everyone to boycott the Sonia Boyce exhibition, which starts later this month. If the painting is not restored to its rightful place very quickly it may become an issue in May's Council election.

More info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42904024. There is no mention of this on the Manchester Art Gallery site: http://manchesterartgallery.org

So to protest about what you call "censorship" you are suggesting that people "censor" another exhibition?

It's not "censorship" though is it?
It's part of another exhibition at the gallery

Art has many functions

You also (unwittingly?) highlight one of the other issues around this. By using the phrase "As a Council Tax payer" you imply that with that comes entitlement. I'm no Berger (or Sontag etc) but that is one of the issues around the depiction of the body in Art. How much does the person in position of power (historically a rich man) have the right to make decisions about the content of the Art?

[Bryn]

As a Council Tax payer in Manchester, I object very strongly to my money being wasted in this way. It appears that the removal of this work of art (one of Manchester Art Gallery's most iconic pieces) has been videoed for a forthcoming exhibition by a performance artist called Sonia Boyce, a new name to me but I understand she is a major figure in this branch of art and has an MBE to her name. This type of censorship is utterly inexcusable - nobody has to look at the painting who feels that he/she may be offended - and should be punished by the dismissal without notice of Clare Gannaway and others who assisted in this censorship. I would urge everyone to boycott the Sonia Boyce exhibition, which starts later this month. If the painting is not restored to its rightful place very quickly it may become an issue in May's Council election.

More info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42904024. There is no mention of this on the Manchester Art Gallery site: http://manchesterartgallery.org

How did you manage to miss http://manchesterartgallery.org/blog...orian-fantasy/ , a fairly prominent link via an illustration from the painting.

[ahinton]

Manchester should certainly consider banning performances of Lemminkainen and the Virgins of the Island, which depicts in sound rather more than this painting does. Perhaps Kullervo would have to go as well, and the Paris version of Tannhauser.

Hmm - to say nothing of Wozzeck, Lulu, Die Soldaten... The list isn't endless (because no list is or could be), but it would be pretty long...

[Keraulophone]

Oh, that Jacob Rees-Mogg. Evidently the favourite among Conservative Party members to be the next Tory leader.

Even after an accusation such as this?

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/jacob-rees-mogg-viewed-lithographs-of-victorian-ladies-ankles-20171204140269

[jean]

They [ie the French] do like to tell people (or rather WOMEN) what to wear or not though...

They also like to tell women when they aren't being harassed...

"...trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cackhandedly, is not [a crime], nor is being gentlemanly a macho attack...”

Though Catherine Deneuve herself has apologised - sort of.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just trying to imagine this sort of thing happening in other galleries....

[Lat-Literal]

[...]
Manchester Art Gallery has asked the question after removing John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs, one of the most recognisable of the pre-Raphaelite paintings, from its walls. Postcards of the painting will be removed from sale in the shop.
[…]

Should we be laughing or worried, or give up?

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jan/31/manchester-art-gallery-removes-waterhouse-naked-nymphs-painting-prompt-conversation

HOST: If you think this should be on The General Art, please move it. And which painting will be the next target?

This was on "The World at One". The gallery's representative was feeble. She was unable to refute that it was a publicity stunt or to say why she should be answering the questions when she was the curator of modern art. It took a studio guest to point out that the picture was hardly typical of the Victorian era given that it was produced in the 1890s so to pick it as a symbol of such for some to rally against was plain wrong. The retort was that he by discussing it was doing just as the gallery hoped. As with the upset over the old pub sign depicting a kindly, ignorant couple trying to wash a boy clean of his black skin and the huge industry that is holocaust denial, it is a case of people today thinking they have an authority to rewrite history. They don't. They make themselves look more foolish and considerably less charming than that couple and anything to the left or right of the Nazis and So-called Islamic State.

[vinteuil]

.

... anyway, what about the abuse Hylas suffered from Herakles?


.

[teamsaint]

I'd say that those who are trying to stimulate discussion might consider both the quality of that discussion, and alternative strategies.
I thought the explanations by the curators in the Guardian piece were pretty feeble, actually.

[jean]

... anyway, what about the abuse Hylas suffered from Herakles?

That was consensual.

[MrGongGong]

I'd say that those who are trying to stimulate discussion might consider both the quality of that discussion, and alternative strategies.
.

What do YOU consider to be a better "quality" of discussion?
Late night R3?
Chaps in suits on BBC4?

[vinteuil]

.

... poor Hylas. Wiki says (so it must be true) that he was kidnapped by Dryope / the nymphs.


.

[eighthobstruction]

Even after an accusation such as this?

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politi...20171204140269

....that's good [funny even]....inventive wit....

[eighthobstruction]

Just trying to imagine this sort of thing happening in other galleries....

....I understand Google has taken down its 'very high powered zoom in microscopey thing'....because people/perverts were using it to zoom in on the ears of certain Bosch paintings ....