Live Nude Art!

Brian Reed’s recent exhibition entitled “Through the Heart of It All” featured a living, breathing nude woman (who, oddly enough, also happens to be my high school classmate with whom I lost touch a decade ago-life is full of surprises) standing in the window of Chair and the Maiden Gallery in the West Village.

As the Times writes, in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled under the First Amendment in favor of a nude New York photo shoot, paving the way for present day artists such as Brian Reed.

The New York Times, L Magazine and other publications who covered the exhibitions all remarked on the generally ho-hum public response to something that a mere generation ago would have potentially sparked outrage (you can see the NYTimes article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/nyregion/26naked.html and L Mag: http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2010/02/26/nudity-in-art-still-sort-of-shocking-kinda).

It’s interesting to note how Supreme Court rulings can, in the course of a mere decade, have (or, at the very least, contribute to) such a substantial impact on both public mores and general consensus on what constitutes art.