Chemical Erik May 27th, 2009

David,
I don't think you've made you point well. WHY is nude art good (or at least acceptable)? Not disagree with anything, I'm just not getting any more of a message than "nude art is good". Too which I'd say: sometimes.

Shawn May 27th, 2009

I don't think he needs to spell it out for us. Too often do we want everything spelled out so we don't have to think about it. Must he offer you some sort of reasoning? I believe he does by showing this painting. Ponder "The Finding of Moses", and then come to the conclusion whether or not you think that this piece of art is better for having nudes or worse. I don't think he is saying anytime someone is naked and an artist takes a picture/draws/paints them that it is good, but it isn't bad because of the nudity, it's become bad or immoral or whatever because of the artists intent. If their intent is a just one, than I believe nude are can be honest and unabashed and eye opening, but when the artist is being exploitative or doing it for the sake of being artsy, than it is no longer worthy of appreciation.

Jand Meditz May 27th, 2009

Do you believe nudity is good? Then back up what you teach and preach with personal application. Suppose painting or carving yourself nude or your wife or husband, son or daughter, grandchildren, friends or congregation nude. Art includes film. Act nude with your wife, husband, son, daughter, grandchildren, friends and congregation. DO WHAT YOU PREACH, DO WHAT YOU TEACH, DO WHAT YOU WATCH. If you can't, then I question the integrity of what you preach and teach. I have a feeling you would rather use people other than your family, friends and congregation to act nude in art/film for you to satisfy selfish lusts. However, I could be wrong and If you are serious about nudity, then stop talking about how others live out art in nudity and walk by faith yourself. Set a goal to involve yourself, family, friends and congregation to participate in nudity, then maybe others will believe your message as biblical.

Anonymous May 27th, 2009

It seems like the nudity might be distracting us from the real issue in the painting – Moses was white?? The pharoh Queen was also in serious need of some SPF??

Maybe we should look past the nudity and try to see some 'real' issues?

Laurie M. May 27th, 2009

Last year my husband and I visited The Getty Museum in L.A. It was splendid and we came home with some prints of our favorites of the works we saw there. One was so stunning I could barely drag myself away. So we purchased a print to take home. You can see a pic of it here:

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=584&handle=li

It wasn't until we were home and 500 miles away that I realized we'd brought a very large print of a nude into our home and that there might be some from our circles who would be offended; and we puzzled over where we should hang it. We still think it's marvelous. And we still haven't hung it.

Ryan Cook May 27th, 2009

@Jand

Disagreeing with censorship does not necessitate walking around naked or inviting others to do the same. That applies to any form of censorship, I think. Just because I disagree with the censorship of extreme political views (such as anarchy) doesn't mean that I have to go and become an anarchist to not be a hypocrite.

In this instance, David is making the point that art shouldn't be censored simply because it has some nudity in it. As an individual, one can make the choice to stay away from such art if it's offensive, but that doesn't mean that censorship (taking it away from everyone) is the right thing to do.

I'll agree with you that nudity in art is often used to evoke a purely lustful reaction, but sometimes it's perfectly acceptable to use. In this painting, for example, there's nothing out-of-context with the nudity, because the women were probably nude as they went to bathe. Similarly, portrayals of Adam and Eve are usually semi-nude because they didn't have clothes as stated directly from the Bible. There's nothing in those paintings that demands that the artist do the same.