Nudity: Art or Pornography :: Essays Papers

Nudity cunning or Pornography People often end up on the blow sides of the argument concerning the fine line between art and pornography. Artists sometimes hold nude depictions or descriptions of the human form in their work. The artists and many opposite liberals and citizens of the art world argue that it is important for artists to feel the freedom to evoke themselves in any way that they wish. The problem with this liberty is that many sight find the nude body offensive and believe that these casts should not be considered art and pornography instead. This is a valid and important dilemma, but as Dennis Barrie describes art in a speech that was published in Art Journal, sometimes art is not beautiful, and sometimes its challenging, and sometimes its even offensive, and yet it can be art, even if its all those things (Barrie 30). Artists should always be allowed to express themselves fully and not devotion public reprimand despite the risk they may run of pique p eople who cannot appreciate their work. The United States has always prided itself on being a free country that values its first amendment. Many people jeer that the most important right in the United States constitution is a citizens right to freely express him or herself. The problem in this situation is that people also value living in a country without fear of being offended. Our laws are created to protect ones self as well as others. So, it is important to attempt to decent everyones needs as much as is possible in a free society. Dennis Barrie, director of Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati, was indicted and ultimately acquitted for the exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, depicting nudity and human bondage. In 1991 Barrie spoke of the events surrounding the situation at the seventy-ninth annual convocation of the College Art Association in a speech called The Scene of the Crime. When Barrie exposit the day that the police entered the museum to remove the photographs he makes an important point, More than anything, that imagethat image of policeman in uniforms pushing patrons out of a museum because of what is on the wallsis the image thats going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Because that isnt our country, or it shouldnt be our country (Barrie 30).