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How do You Feel about Nudity in Art?

Brickjectivity

wind and rain touch not this brain
Staff member
Premium Member
How do you feel about nudity in art? Especially the visual arts -- painting, drawing, sculpture, etc?
My feeling is that it should be available but not forced. It is therapeutic for many people I think. It can help people deal with their questions about reality and morality. There are arguments for and against protecting art, and nudity in art as well as violence. For some people art is therapeutic. For others its alarming. It communicates, and it also lets us deal with fears and urges. It can also produce fears. Some people have little control over their visual imaginations. Others have great control. Putting it into someone's face is like yelling at them. Putting it into a book with a cover is not.

Filling the grocery store isle with women in swimsuits was always in bad taste and continues to be. It was disrespectful of the people who mostly didn't want it there and didn't want their children looking at it in the grocery isle. That was a forced imposition of pornography.

Why did that come about? It came about as a reaction partly against people who tried to shut pornography down completely and make blue laws. It was and continues to be part of a heated argument between those who want to illegalize everything including art, alcohol and drugs; and those who want prohibitions relaxed. Currently that battle rages in the public sphere. Those in favor of art and freedom want to make sure people know what is at stake, because otherwise it might be taken away or made illegal. That mean pushing the mediums into places where people don't want them.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
How do you feel about nudity in art? Especially the visual arts -- painting, drawing, sculpture, etc?
Like just about any thing else, it can be very tasteful and used to enhance something like a painting. The naked body also makes for a great study to draw in order to see how the muscles tense and relax in different poses. And then it is just a body, except when it's in art it's usually more than just a body
What is art?
Uhhhh......an expression thingy of sorts?
Are any of the above three categories NOT art? Why or why not?
I do tend to draw the line at things that took no objective effort. I don't consider Andy Warhol eating lunch on camera art, nor did I consider a dropped handful of straw that one of my art teachers dropped on a table to be a sculpture despite the teacher being so wowed about artistically awesome the randomly generated pile was.
 

Trackdayguy

Speed doesn't kill, it's hitting the wall
I'm not sure I understand what all the fuss is about. Surely the issue is shame. In my opinion religion has been the author of creating shame about our bodies. I go to a nude swim in Calgary with my 2 ladies, it's a lot of fun and non sexual. Since we started going never seen 1 man with a hard on.

What is the problem here, get a life & get your clothes off.....
 
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Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
That must be the raunchiest video I’ve seen on RF ever.:D

Really? I never thought of art that way. You should see the detailed work of people's penis and such. Guess it depends on the person. Some artist are more possessed when it comes to details and styles. We can stand and stare at art for hours.

But rouchy? Guess it depends on the person. My friend doesnt like art, music, dance, sing, anything creative. Shrugs. I don't get it.

Edit. Take my avatar for instance. Believe me, I found ones just as unique but too exposed to use it.
 
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metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
How do you feel about nudity in art?
Funny, as my wife and I were talking about this topic this morning.

I don't have a problem with nudity as I've been a "gym rat" ever since high school, college, and well beyond both. I almost always took a shower after sports, often with other company, so being naked is really quite easy for me. I've gone skinny dipping a great many times, including getting caught on several occasions in the past.

Not so much for my wife as she really doesn't like being seen totally naked. But she did adjust over time, including on many occasions making love outside when we were camping. Got caught once by accident.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
An image of a nude human can be used to convey anything from sensuality to absurdity to reverence to repugnance. In art, the chosen content and how it is being rendered is representative of how the artist is perceiving and relating to it. So to proclaim that an artist should not use nudity in their art is about the equivalent of claiming that he should not use curse words, or the color red, or the sound of honking car horns because they are deemed 'offensive'. It ignores the reason that artworks exist in the first place.
 

Dan From Smithville

What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Staff member
Premium Member
How do you feel about nudity in art? Especially the visual arts -- painting, drawing, sculpture, etc?
I had to stop and ponder this one a moment. Nudity outside of the visual. Having just watched a movie on the history of the electric guitar and advent of blues and rock and roll, I think I have gained an appreciation for the visceral evoked by a musical instrument, even to the point that I might consider some of the playing to be sonic nudity. Still it is an interesting idea. Probably outside the scope of the OP. But interesting.

Is non-erotic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring non-erotic nudity? Would you pose for a non-erotic nude?

Is erotic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring erotic nudity? Would you pose for an erotic nude?

Is pornographic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring pornographic nudity? Would you pose for a pornographic nude?
I think that it is OK for the human body and human activities to be displayed in art. I have the usual exceptions that run along legal lines dealing with age and consent in certain types of visual portrayals, but otherwise, I think all of the above as appropriate subjects. I would not impose my image on an unsuspecting public and out of fear of incarceration for possession of WMD's.

Sometimes, the inclusion of clothing or other covering evokes a stronger sense of eros than the complete absence of cover.

BONUS QUESTIONS: What is art? Are any of the above three categories NOT art? Why or why not?
I have my own ideas, but I ultimately, cannot nail it down so that it fits everyone.




Please Note: It has been my experience that, f you don't already know the differences between non-erotic, erotic, but non-pornographic, and pornographic nudity, a definition is not likely to help you.

Some works do cross-over from one category to another, or blur the lines between categories, but the main differences seem generally clear and obvious if you have a well enough developed aesthetic sense to see them. But if you don't have that aesthetic sense, no definition will be likely to help you, so please don't ask for one.

Having said that, it's also been my experience that examples can sometimes help. With that in mind:








As for pornographic nudes, you can find those anywhere -- no need to post one here.
Nice pictures. I think individual perspective and taste impact how you categorize these images and I might have labeled them differently, but nothing you linked is outside of my concept of art. As to the latter, I have seen plenty and it may not be whether it is or is not art, but whether it is art of quality.
 

Dan From Smithville

What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Staff member
Premium Member
The human body, in all its shapes and sizes is beautiful.

My view is anything i consider beautiful is moral however i am pretty certain some will disagree.

Beauty is art, it is also in the eye of the beholder.

Even the church accepted nudity in art at one time

I suspect that you are probably a living work of art even when you have been scrubbing a kitchen clean all day.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
But, 1-3 yes. Here's something I came upon months ago.

Belen Francese Desnuda Bailando - Strip Dance

Art is beautiful in all its forms
Five dollars says the dude is as queer as I am.
And he was just doing his job, nothing about sex.
He makes art, the performance sort of art. He is obviously very good at what he does. But the sexually charged image exists entirely between the ears of the audience members.
Tom
 

VoidCat

Pronouns: he/him/they/them
How do you feel about nudity in art? Especially the visual arts -- painting, drawing, sculpture, etc?

Is non-erotic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring non-erotic nudity? Would you pose for a non-erotic nude?​
.
I see no issue with nudity in of itself in art. Yes it is an appropriate subject if an artist want to do that. Moral as well. Would I pose for one? Probably not- I don't even like seeing myself naked much less someone else seeing me.
Is erotic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring erotic nudity? Would you pose for an erotic nude?
Yes and yes and probably not.
Is pornographic nudity an appropriate subject for the artist? Is it moral for an artist to create works featuring pornographic nudity? Would you pose for a pornographic nude?
Now we are on a subject I am not sure of my opinion this. If the people in the artwork are consenting ok with it and as is the artist then why should I care? Is it moral?I don't know. I know for a fact I would never pose for one.
 

Dan From Smithville

What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Staff member
Premium Member
Where did you learn to creep like that?
Hmmm? It is one of my two super powers. It has been referred to as "charm". I was born with it. The other power is some intermittent control of electric fields that I cannot seem to do much with.
 
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