Let Art be Art

Let art be art:

An independent study

Mr. Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA

Through my research on the arts; study of the classics to the modern arts, I have found that we are becoming too uptight in America. In the 14^th, 15^th, and 16^th centuries; the arts of Europe blossomed. The arts of classism, neo-classism, sculpture, nudes including nudes of children, and portrait painting were popular in that era.
The creative mind of Leonardo Di Vinci in which he used science and art to create inventions long before his time is intriguing.

Leonardo Divinchi self portrait sketch

Close up of the Mona Lisa

The Precambrian Man

The works of Michelangelo most notably the statue of David and the paintings of cherubs in the Sistine Chapel and the works of Raphael; his neo-classism biblical paintings were created within this era.

Statue of David

In the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries; the morbid arts of Goya, the expressionist arts, the Bouguereau arts of pubescent girls, architectural art, and the birth of photography; in which Julia Margret Cameron took nudes of children portraying them as cherubs.

A morbid art by Francesco Goya

Saturno devorando a su hijo by Goya

The Cherub by Julia Margret Cameron

The arts of Manet, Renoir, Monet, Degas and Pissarro created the impressionist period in the late 19^th century. Not to mention the works of Vincent Van Gogh; most notably
Starry Night, Irises, and Sunflowers.

Starry Starry Night

Irises

Sunflowers

These are great works, but I have to mention one of my favorite art pieces painted by
 Pierre Auguste Renoir entitled the “Girl in White”.
Renoir was born on February 25^th, 1841 and died on December 3^rd, 1919.
He was noted for his great portrait works of children. 

Girl in White

The 20^th century brought the great work of Norman Rockwell who had a way of portraying people. He was known for his great works for the Saturday Evening Post.

Fair Catch Norman Rockwell

The 20^th century, of course, was the time of Picasso.
The five main periods of Picasso:
Blue Period (1901-1904), Rose Period (1904-1906),
African-Influenced Period (1907-1909), Cubism (1909-1912),
and Surrealism (1912-1930′s).

Bottle, Guitar, Glass, and Pipe (Cubism period)

My favorite artists were born during this time, notably Jock Sturgis who was born in 1947 in New York City; He attended school at Marlboro College earning a BS in Psychology and then attended art school at the San Francisco Art Institute which he earned his MFA. He is one of the controversial artist who photographs nudes of pubescent, preteen, and teen girls. Though I do not totally agree with his subject matter, I respect him as an artist. The fact that he uses an old box camera, natural lighting, and does not use a photo editing program and gets un-blurred beautiful photos is amazing.
He still takes these photos today on the beaches of France. 

Girl with crossed arms Jock Sturgis

Another favorite artist is a Polish artist name Jaroslaw Kukowski. He is a surreal painter and painter of mermaids. He was born on April 11^th, 1972 in Tczew, Poland.

Mermaid and Gull Jaroslaw Kukowski

In the decade of the 20^th century the controversial arts and films emerged. In 1978 a controversial film was released called, “Pretty Baby”. It displayed 12 year old Brooke Shields as a young prostitute in a French Quarter Louisiana brothel. There was nothing edited in this film; showing complete nudity of a minor child. 

Scene from Pretty Baby, I took the photo from my TV, and edited out her private parts.

Films like it was the 1976 film “Taxi Driver” starring Robert De Niro as the taxi driver and Jody Foster who played a child prostitute; the film entitled, “Lolita” based on Vladimir Nabokov's novel was released in 1997 – starring Dominique Swain portraying young Lolita, a preteen who has an attraction to an adult male. These two films, however, only had brief nudity of the backs of the children, and not the full nudity displayed in “Pretty Baby.” The final film I will mention is the extremely controversial Sundance film, “Hounddog”. What made this film so controversial was the rape scene of a child. This film was released in 2007 and starred 12 year old Dakota Fanning in the role of Lewellen, who was going through struggles as a young country daughter of a drunken and sick father in the early 1950’s. She loves to sing the song, Hound Dog by Elvis Presley. She desired to see Elvis in person and was taken advantage of by an older boy who said he had a ticket for her. Her friend, who was a younger boy, lured her to the barn on a rainy night and tricked her in to taking off her clothes in which she was raped by the older boy. She never did get the ticket for the Elvis concert. After the rape she met this black man whom was a snake charmer and he helped her find herself, overcome what was done to her and grow. 

I watched this film for one of my woman’s studies classes at Western Illinois University. I learned a lot about overcoming turmoil and adversity in this film. 

Dakota Fanning in her most controversial role

The rape scene of Hounddog

Now we are in the 21^st century where art has become a controversy; and congress is trying to pass laws to ban and control arts. The government in 2003 tried to pass a law banning the so-called art of anime lolicon. I do not agree with what lolicon actually is; it is drawn child like images, in the tradition of the Japanese. They mostly have big eyes, some have tails, and some have animal ears. The women that pose for these images are over the age of 18. The pure innocent lolicon drawings (like the one below) I feel are OK, but the hentai type lolicon is too morbid and perverse.

But, if one bans this one has to ban the modern arts; the "photo-nudes" by Jock Sturgis,

Bill Henson, David Hamilton, and Sally Mann. This law does not make it clear what classifies art and what does not. There is a fine line between the modern art of today and porn. It is a judgment call, an objective view which is different for each person. Art today is scrutinized; one could not do a nude painting today without another saying that it is porn. Unlike it was in the arts of old. No the government cannot ban one type of art and not the other, no matter how morbid nor the subject matter. If they do they would have to ban all arts; paintings, drawings, music, dance. This is not logical. I agree on the controls of child modeling, the long hours they have to work and such; but banning art, no!

Just let art be art and let people express themselves. Is not this what art really is?