Faux-Controversy?
There's a story on CBS 2 news about a 'controversy' over a painting being shown at a local artists' exhibit at the Arlington Heights Historical Society. The have received an undisclosed amount of emails calling a painting 'Innocence' by Fred DeAsis, pornographic.
This really stinks of hype to create controversy and promote an artist and show or making much ado about nothing to fill a slow news day. First off, the undisclosed amount of complaints has been received by email. Is it one puritan sending a couple of anonymous emails or an artist/PR flak firing off some emails doing it to create controversy to promote a show? A legitimate complaint would have a name attached. If there is and the news story isn't pursuing who made to complaint to get their side the story - shame on CBS 2 news.
Second, looking at the artwork in question, it's pretty pedestrian. If someone thinks it's racey or pornographic, they're probably upset that women can show their legs in public. The piece doesn't show frontal nudity, just a bare back. Usually a tasteful nude showing female breasts gets some Philistine to grumble, but this piece is very tame. Maplethorpe it is not! (NSFW - but it's art) Any urban gallery or art museum have pieces 10x more edgy. It's very hard to swallow that this work would raise an eyebrow let alone spark 'controversy'. It's tameness and blandness make me smell a rat.
If I'm reading this wrong and there is a groundswell of outrage over this piece - we should all be ashamed of ourselves for living in a backwards and 'Disneyfied' community.
Technorati Tags: Arlington Heights, Arlington Heights Historical Society, Fred DeAsis, Innocence
