jhmcd2 opened this issue on Apr 10, 2008 · 306 posts
thinkinc posted Fri, 11 April 2008 at 5:59 PM
I don't think you've really made it as an artist here unless you've had one of your works censored. Back in my younger, less patient Rosity days (been here awhile), I had a good row with Teh Authoritahs over a series of nude women I did with the hairy bits showing because I don't agree with the idea that breasts are okay to exploit, penises can be tolerated if they aren't erect, but girl genitals are diiirty. I lost the fight, of course, and got over it because I wanted to display my portfolio more than I wanted to make a political statement with art that was never intended to be a political statement.
Artists have to make these kinds of choices all the time, and yes, with brick-and-mortar galleries as well. If I did a series of nakkie kids with bits showing, they'd have to be done a very certain way or a gallerist would decline to host them due to lack of saleability. However, if a person of color from a third-world country was doing nakkie kids pics, the work would likely be readily accepted, because as every privileged American knowns, brown people from poor countries are savages who don't know any better, and it's fine to appreciate that aesthetically. The art world is riddled with cultural jackwittery like that; it isn't just Rosity or the intertubes.
As long as artists are beholden to the public -- and we always are -- that's the way it will be. Now, if you want to make your baby picture and keep it for your private portfolio, once you're famous or dead, it will become another shining example of your brilliance. So don't let the dumb stop you from making your work, you just might want to consider holding onto it.