The Frontal Cortex

Art and Nudity

Posted by Jonah Lehrer on September 30, 2006
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Sometimes I’m amazed at the pockets of ignorance lurking in our midst. This is the sad story of a Texas art teacher who got suspended for taking her class to the museum. Her crime? Letting her innocent pupils glimpse some 16th century paintings that – gasp! – revealed a nipple or two. If the mirror of art reveals our own reflection, then this is sad indeed. The same artistic subjects that were suitable for pre-Enlightenment Europe – even religious paintings used to celebrate the nude body – are now deemed pornographic. Manet is laughing at us:

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Comments

  1. #1 Roger
    September 30, 2006

    Prudery and censorship is alive and will. There is a difference between nudity and nakedness, even if not everyone recognizes it. Pictures of people without clothes and statues with no garments in a museum. Who’d of thunk it.

  2. #2 Elf Eye
    September 30, 2006

    I would feel safer if my daughter were visiting an art museum than if she were working as a page in Washington, DC!