“On Artistic Nudity”

          Recently, I went on an Art History field trip to the Nasher Museum. While I was there, I noticed a gaggle of Muslim high school students sitting right in front of the place. Walking into the museum, and then witnessing the many pieces of art including some nude forms, I pondered how these Muslim students would react to looking at an unclothed male or woman? Now, I know there are liberal Muslims but from the way the women were dressed (hijabs) I had a strong suspicion that these were not the aforementioned type of Muslims.

                But here’s another question that zipped around in my head, would the students react to the nude paintings the way so many had reacted to Erykah Badu’s video “Window Seat”? For those hiding under their respective rocks, Badu’s video is a four minute snap shot of her strolling around Dealey Plaza as she removes several pieces of clothing until she is finally nude. At that point, she is shot by an invisible bullet, and the words “Groupthink” are scrawled across the edge of the screen.

       First things first, the video is obviously meant to provoke and that’s what it has done. Stab the man in the eye and yadda yadda. Erykah Badu has been charged with a disorderedly conduct ticket since then that will require her to pay the exceedingly huge immense amount of $500. There was a big media uproar about this that lasted about half a second. Therefore this shouldn’t be as much as a complaint as it is; but during the conversation where kids, freedom of speech, and disrespect were all discussed there was no mention of the grand tradition of nudity in art.

                Again, I realize that this is not a very original argument nor a very new one, however I do think that for many in this generation it’s an argument that hasn’t been examined for them. So please, those who know and those who don’t want to try to even care are free to skip past this. Anyways, for as long as man has had the tools to make depictions of naked people, people have been protesting against them making these depictions.  

                Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Edouard Manet is a prime example of this. Manet’s inclusion of a nude woman in a contemporary setting next to dressed men caused great ire and controversy in the art world. This was mainly because the naked woman stared right at the viewer; also most nudes until then had been in classical settings. This was back in 1863, it’s been 147 years since then and people are still reacting the same way.

                Anyways, for me I think that if one wants to be nude or use nudity in their art then they should be free to. Those who don’t want to see this nudity can just not look at it. Back to the schoolchildren, during the time I was there I heard no gasps of shock or objections from them. Maybe people should have handled Erykah Badu more like they did, with thought as opposed to anger.