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July172006

Burton Silverman in the Altogether?

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged:


No indeed; the longtime New Yorker Profile artist is being Volterraized. In Utah, some people (at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art) just don't like nudes:


Silverman, who chuckled about the religious university eliminating his nudes from the show, said he began doing nudes by visiting burlesque houses.

"Nudity in public life is relevant," he told the Deseret Morning News.

BYU officials take exception to that view, maintaining that nude illustrations are irrelevant to the exhibition that will open July 29.

Update: Another local profile of Silverman. Nudes not included.

Comments

This is a distorted and sensationalist story. A phone interview with a dyspeptic sounding reporter (can’t remember his name) for the Desert News pasted together remarks from differing contexts (that sad rebuttal, I know) that seemed to be exposing an exclusion by the Brigham Young Museum of Art to my drawings of the nude. No such ban was imposed, nor were any drawings excluded from the work offered them for the retrospective exhibition. I have found the museum and its staff extraordinarily sophisticated and as art historically well informed as any museums I have dealt with. This is a bored reporter’s idea of “news” and a sad commentary on a genuine dialogue about the relevance of art and social concerns.

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