Porn Masquerading as Art

Any student of art history can probably list dozens of examples of 'fine art' that crosses the dubious line between art and pornography. Some of the most famous paintings in the world were originally little more than naughty pictures for very rich men. Sometimes, artists don't even realize that they've crossed the line, and sometimes they do but intellectualize it away. Then there's those, such as some pseudo-artistic photography magazines, who produce porn and know they do, but use art as a disguise.

The BBC NEWS reported recently that an Idaho strip club owner had attempted to get around local nudity laws by handing out sketchpads to clients and holding 'art nights'. Leaving any moral judgement of the club itself aside, I'm not sure if I want to applaud the owner for his creativity, or to be appalled at his brazen abuse of artistic tradition.

I did have a good laugh when I first read the article, but there is a serious flipside: for genuine artists, interested in figure drawing - drawing the nude human body, also called life drawing - which is the basis of traditional art education, this sort of nonsense just makes it that much harder. In many countries, it is increasingly difficult to run figure drawing classes. An English forum member reported that it was illegal to even advertise for models! Nonsense like the strip club 'art nights' just gives ammunition to over-zealous censorship legislators.