Painting removed from Manchester Gallery in apparent censorship

[RedEve]

John William Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs" has been removed from Manchester Gallery.
The reasons stated are vague, but they are framed within a broader discussion about female objectification in art, as an extension of the #MeToo movement.
I think we are on a slippery slope with this stuff. This kind of censorship makes me deeply uncomfortable.

A Guardian piece about the controversy here:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jan/31/hylas-and-the-nymphs-jw--waterhouse-why-have-mildly-erotic-nymphs-been-removed-from-a-manchester-gallery-is-picasso-next

[Ari the Witch]

Politics shouldn't bleed into the art world like that! Censorship of paintings such as Hylas and the Nymphs over the Me Too movement, if that's the reason behind it, is not the direction I think should be taken. I can understand it being taken down to move it to another gallery, but they would have likely mentioned that to the public if that was the case.

[Oniya]

Oddly enough, in the myth of Hylas, the youth is actually abducted by the water nymphs, leading to Heracles (Hercules) leaving the Argo to search for him.  (There is some discrepancy as to whether Heracles was his father [Ovid, et al.] or lover [Theocritus].)

[Thesunmaid]

They...do know what nymphs are right? And will they be protesting any paintings depicting satyrs and fauns? The male equivalent of a nymph? And they are nature spirits...so what exactly should they be wearing Parkas?

[Lustful Bride]

I am saddened that there isn't more outcry against this. Soon more works of art will be taken down on the most minute of reasons.

[Regina Minx]

I think we are on a slippery slope with this stuff. This kind of censorship makes me deeply uncomfortable.

Censorship of classical art that features human nudity is hardly a new thing.

I mean, fuck, they covered up Michaelangelo's freaking David once.

[gaggedLouise]

Yes, I'm uncomfortable with this kind of knee-jerk moralizing about works of art too. It's only too easy to try to reduce paintings or sculptures to "objectification of naked or half-naked women", glorification of war narratives, old-fashioned story tropes of some kind etc, and lose sight of their many possible meanings beyond that. I'm not impressed by activists and wannabe art critics who are presupposing, basically, that "it's not prudishness or censorship when it's *our* side talking about paintings that should be taken down or castigated".

When Manet put Olympia on show in Paris in 1863 it met with anger and calls for censorship because the woman at the centre was a courtesan (=a high-class escort, a "whore") - this is signaled by some details in the picture, apart from her pose - and still the painting did nothing to try to put her down. She's being painted in some sort of "heroic nudity" - and she is looking directly at us with a confident, commanding gaze, as if she were some sort of goddess or duchess. There was moral shock and scandal allright. I figure that today some people might want to dismiss it because they would see it as objectifying and even racist - the black servant/slave to the right. But I think both of these reactions - the old and the new - are misguided; the painting is not trying to make any ideological point about what women are like or how white and black women should be perceived. It exists outside of that.

[gaggedLouise]

And of course, both women in Olympia were sat for by models. Neither one was "the real thing" of their apparent positions in life, outside of the picture. :)

[Ari the Witch]

Oddly enough, in the myth of Hylas, the youth is actually abducted by the water nymphs, leading to Heracles (Hercules) leaving the Argo to search for him.  (There is some discrepancy as to whether Heracles was his father [Ovid, et al.] or lover [Theocritus].)

That's the irony, isn't it? He is the one who is helpless, thus making the myth behind the painting pro-women in a way.

[Oniya]

That's the irony, isn't it? He is the one who is helpless, thus making the myth behind the painting pro-women in a way.

Or at least more 'objectifying' of Hylas. 

[Ari the Witch]

Or at least more 'objectifying' of Hylas.

People see, but do not go forth to understand before condemning. This is why there is so much judging of minority groups. People also have issues with accepting. Their own privileges. I have the privilege of being white, so I don't have any of the experiences someone who isn't Caucasian would have. That gives me no right to turn a blind eye to something unfair happening to those simply. This world could really use a huge dose of empathy. There is too much negativity, hostility, and division amongst the human race. That painting's censorship is a mild example of how ridiculous people are just to "prove something".

[Oniya]

This world could really use a huge dose of empathy.

Quoted for truth.  Serious truth.

[Ari the Witch]

Quoted for truth.  Serious truth.

I can actually see myself going up on a podium and giving a whole speech on having empathy for others after seeing you quoted me for how true it is. I'm not the best with vocalising what I have to say, but I'm passionate about this, and that helps enough that I could give my peace of mind without making a fool of myself in front of hundreds of thousands of people and on camera. I'm introverted, but hell if I keep my mouth shut on something so important for the selfish sake of being left to myself.

[Lilias]

Has anyone drawn a parallel with the Rokeby Venus incident yet?

[Ari the Witch]

Has anyone drawn a parallel with the Rokeby Venus incident yet?

Thank you for bringing this up! There really are parallels there, and it's hard not to see them.

[gaggedLouise]

Has anyone drawn a parallel with the Rokeby Venus incident yet?

*nods* Heard about that one some years ago, but I went for Olympia as a parallel since it was seen as scandalous at the time it was painted and now could be seen as offensive again, but with a different emphasis.

Olympia actually borrowed much of the pose from a far earlier painting of Venus, by one of the great Renaissance masters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Urbino :)