Naked! Showing at the Paul Kasmin Gallery was at first glance very successful. The show juxtaposes traditional nudes with contemporary art with a wonderful use of interplay between the pieces as they react with one another. As I was looking at a traditional bronze sculpture with a back drop of two hot pink men in a forest I thought to myself "This is pure genius!" There are quite a few different forms and artists who focused on exploring the naked body in a plethora of different ways. You can see the pieces online here: Naked Art Show! The show is a success in that it really gets those rusty gears inside your head moving. This show is very important to any artist that either deals with nudity in their art or who is considering an art project involving nude men or women. Unfortunately, I cannot give this show 5 stars. After the initial fascination with all of the interaction between the works and when you start to come to the end of the show, you realize that it is painfully obvious what race the curators are. Almost 100% of the works deal with Caucasian bodies. Almost all of the artists are also white. And you guessed it the curators are white too. Now I'm not sure but if one is going to explore the history of nudes in art I'm pretty sure one should include at the very least 10% or 20% at least of art that is done by people who are not white. I'm sure there are plenty.
In sum the art in the show is good. But there is an intrinsic flaw (or even racist flaw) with the Creation that negates the pros and insights of the show on principle. Again you can see the art here: Naked Art Show!
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