Elizabeth Fortescue and Rhett Watson May 03, 2007 found at news.com.au / The Daily Telegraph
Conference paper by John
Mitchell. "Modern art is based on profit potential rather than
expression of free ideas and communication. .Therefore the commodification of art
has rendered the message contained within to be obsolete." With
comments from Alan Woods, editor of the In Defence of Marxism website
www.marxist.com
ART attack ... Carrie Ade and Lynn Styman-Lane view Andrew Frost's
controversial artwork The Pornography of Hope at the Art Gallery of NSW.
click on the image to discover the uncensored giving
head image painting
A BRISBANE artist's work depicting giving head oral sex has brought
controversy back into art, with the police sent to investigate concerns that the
Art Gallery of NSW made it too available to schoolchildren yesterday.
The mixed media image, titled The Pornography of Hope, caused a sensation in the
hugely popular Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes.
The Rocks Police were called by a gallery visitor upset that children as
young as primary school age were able to view the artwork by Andrew Frost.
Yesterday, students from prestigious Waverley College were busy studying the
piece and many more were visiting the combined exhibitions.
"There was someone concerned there was a painting depicting a sexually
explicit act and children had access to it," Inspector Ian Perkins said.
"We investigated and there are signs warning that there are paintings of
that nature there and that children aren't to enter the area."
Visitors must walk past the painting when they leave the exhibition.
A sign at the entry urges parental supervision due to "graphic
images".
AGNSW director Edmund Capon said the gallery had received up to 10 telephone
calls and letters about the painting, but they were comments rather than
complaints, so he had not considered removing the picture.
Some visitors yesterday were shocked by the mixed media picture, particularly
because thousands of schoolchildren visit the exhibition and will do so until it
ends on May 13.
Ruth Naghten said The Pornography of Hope was not appropriate viewing for
children.
"I really don't want to look at it, and I don't call myself
prudish," Ms Naghten said.
Bruce Marquette said the work was pornographic and shouldn't be there, but
Carrie Ade and Lynn Styman-Lane were unruffled "I think art's art. You can
express it any way you wish in 2007," Ms Styman-Lane said.
Education co-ordinator Tristan Sharp said the gallery had warned school
groups about the Frost painting when they made their booking.
A leaflet was also given to teachers, urging them to assess the painting
before allowing students to see it.
Frost, 38, said his picture was not meant to offend.
MovieShame.
There have always been lots of movies that show or exploit sex, but far fewer
that try to explore it seriously, as a rich, meaningful subject, whether
psychological or social...
A Christmas Carol Seymour Hicks plays
the title role of Scrooge in the first
sound version of the Dickens classic about ..
