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Photography and the Classical Nude Exhibition at the University of Sydney

THE nude in photography is now a fraught artistic realm – and particularly so in the wake of the Bill Henson saga of 2008, when police arrived to remove the artist’s work from Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington.

That incident sparked a furious debate about Henson’s use of nude adolescents in his photographs.

Even though Henson’s work was subsequently put back on view and no charges were ever laid over his photographs, the furore changed the game plan for artists and their use of the nude.

The Australia Council released guidelines for artists working with children, and a new law scrapped the defence of artistic merit in child pornography images.

So what of the exhibition to open shortly at the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney? Exposed: Photography And The Classical Nude examines the influence of classical Greek and Roman sculpture on photographers from the 1840s to the present day. Curator Michael Turner says the exhibition, part of Sydney Festival 2011, is not intended to be shocking.

“It would be too easy to be confrontational,” Turner says.

Not wishing to be sensational, he changed his mind about including a particularly raunchy image by Robert Mapplethorpe because it was “too rude”. But Turner faced up to the historical fact of the depiction of young people in photography, and the tangle of issues surrounding it, through some of the images he did include.

In the late Victorian era, many photographers “pandered” to a certain seedy market by travelling to Greece or Italy and taking photographs of adolescent boys draped around various objects of antiquity. He says use of archaic objects to justify the nude picture is known as “the classical alibi”.

Famous photographers represented in the exhibition include Henry Fox Talbot, who used statues as models because they stayed still. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed a famous statue of Venus in the archaeological museum in Naples.

The goddess appears to be speaking to two children who have turned their faces towards her.

Other photographers in the show include Eadweard Muybridge, Brassai, Robert Doisneau, and Australia’s Max Dupain and Lewis Morley.

The exhibition highlights a little-known occurrence in Sydney in the early 20th century when a radical archbishop insisted much of the nude, classically inspired statuary be removed from the Royal Botanic Gardens. Some statues were later reinstated. But an Apollo was never seen again, and a Venus was lost, having graced a Blue Mountains hotel for a while.

Turner describes the exhibition as beautiful, adding: “I hope there’s a couple of images that might be a bit confrontational and people react to; otherwise I hope people come away from it feeling good with themselves, good with their bodies.”

Photography And The Classical Nude, Nicholson Museum, University Of Sydney; January 4 to April 17, Monday-Friday 10am-4.30pm, Sunday noon-4pm, free, 9351 2812, sydney.edu.au/museums
2011.01.02 / no responses / Category: Nudist Events
Popular Sydney Nudist Beach Raided

A popular beach for nudists has been raided by police following community concerns over illegal behaviour.

Families with small children were among the 140 people sunbathing on Little Congwong Beach at La Perouse, in Sydney’s south, when police and National Parks and Wildlife officers arrived about 12.30pm yesterday.

About 80 people were completely naked but the children present were fully clothed.

The officers attended the beach, which is not a designated nude sunbathing area, following complaints from the community.

Little Congwong Beach is within viewing distance from Bare Island – a popular destination for tourists and locals.

Police informed nude sunbathers of their illegal behaviour, prompting them to get dressed and leave the area.

Officers returned at 4pm, which prompted more nude sunbathers to vacate the beach.

Police said legal nude bathing beaches located in the Sydney metropolitan region included Lady Bay Beach at Watsons Bay and Cobblers and Obelisk Beach at Middle Head.
2010.02.23 / no responses / Category: Nudist News