Page 17 - Studio International - November 1966

which played a vital role in these ritualistic perfection'. To him the representation of to relate publication with mass circulation.
proceedings was nothing other than paint. the nude had been essentially destructive A magistrate at Leeds pointed out that
This Happening—which Nitsch had already to every school of art in which it had been `A work of art like The Decameron is not
performed some twenty times—was loaded practiced, and he considered the study of considered obscene, but if it was sold at
with meaning; it was also brutal and violent, anatomy by art students to be not only a 6 1/2 d on a bookstall to attract customers
but not without its own poetic content. For hindrance but a degradation. As the it could well be so.' The point that what
Nitsch this was a cathartic event, obviously executor of Turner's will, in which Turner might be obscene in a paperback is not
designed to shock. But despite this, it was left all his works to the nation, Ruskin was obscene in hard covers is a simplification of
completely devoid of any element that might in charge of unpacking all the cases of the sort of tacit understanding that has been
have been described as dealing with sex Turner's paintings which arrived at the evident throughout history. On the one hand
`in a manner appealing to prurient interest'. National Gallery. To his utter horror he one can see this as an undemocratic
None of the manifestations mentioned above found a number of paintings of women procedure, like having one law for the rich
could be called pornographic; it would be from Wapping, where Turner used to go and one law for the poor. There is another
hard to imagine that they could be sexually at weekends, in postures of complete point, however, which is more relevant
titillating, unless one bears in mind the abandonment. This incident, which is here than the question of democracy. This
often quoted example of a man who derived reported to have been described by Ruskin is the question of the context in which what
sexual excitement from reading Uncle in a conversation with Frank Harris, had a might be considered obscene is found. In
Tom's Cabin. tragic end. After two weeks of agonizing the course of her anthropological studies
As for obscenity, which in other words is indecision, Ruskin burned all the Turners Margaret Mead made some very relevant
gross indecency, this term is more difficult he deemed indecent. observations on society and human
to pin down. The most apt definition was In the case of the paintings by D. H. behaviour. She stated that every known
volunteered by an American judge in 1913: Lawrence which were confiscated from his human society has some form of explicit
`Should not the word obscene be allowed to exhibition at Warren Gallery in 1929, the censorship relating to sex which arises
indicate the present critical point in the prosecution pointed out that in regard from the simultaneous needs to control
compromise between candour and shame at to drawings and paintings of the nude, the and cherish it. She stresses the importance
which the community may have arrived test of obscenity was whether the genitalia, of the sanctity of the bedroom. Perhaps one
here and now?' One could thus argue that and particularly the pubic hair, were could take this point a little further and
the term 'obscene' has nothing to do with delineated. This did not prevent the consider, say, the Victoria and Albert
the work of art, but is only relevant to the journalists from pointing out Lawrence's Museum as the 'bedroom of art', where in
spectator's position in time and space inaccuracy in depicting certain details. its refined and special atmosphere one can
vis-à-vis the society of which he is a member. When a destruction order was applied for, permit orgies in which the viewer's
Practical definitions and criteria in dealing Mr Mead the magistrate, aged 82, responsive spirit wrestles with the impact
with obscene material have undergone dismissed the evidence of art experts, stating: of the work of art. The indecent pictures
enormous changes. The free circulation of `It is utterly immaterial whether they are found in Roman ruins, like the Beardsley
pornographic works in the eighteenth century works of art. That is a collateral question drawings, belong to the aesthetic environ-
waned with the renewal of vice societies which I have not to decide. The most ment of a museum for no other reason than
and the proclamation issued by George III splendidly painted picture in the Universe the fact that any misunderstandings are less
demanding that law 'suppress all loose and might be obscene.' Warren Gallery replaced likely to occur there than in Oxford Street.
licentious prints, books and publications the D. H. Lawrence exhibition with a show The problem of obscenity and the law is
dispensing poison to the minds of the young entitled Art forms in nature taken from vegetable not dissimilar to that of divorce—both are
and unwary, and punish the publishers and growths. Lawrence's feelings are expressed based on very personal relationships between
the vendors thereof.' in a poem, of which this is a part: people and books, people and pictures, people
Two of the great follies to which high Ah my nice pictures they are fauled they are and people. In art, where mass publication
moral tone has inadvertently led are the dirtied is not an issue, only a total misunderstanding
tragic case of the Turner paintings and the not by time, but by unclean breath and eyes is responsible for raising the question of
sad incident of the D. H. Lawrence of all the sorded people that have starid at them obscenity. Our laws so far deal with the
exhibition. The Turner case was directly uncleanly protection of the innocent and outraged
involved with Ruskin. The latter was well looking dirt on them and breathing on them public. Perhaps it is art that should be
known for claims such as the necessity to lies. . . . protected from the results of salacious
develop 'the faculty for receiving the Publication, under the terms of the law, presumptions; and confiscation should be
greatest possible pleasure from those means literally showing the manuscript, limited to those expressions of high-toned
material sources which are attractive to drawing or painting to any other person. morality that seek a suitably ambiguous
our moral nature in its purity and In practice, however, prosecution has tended outlet, like art, for their misdirected rage.

Josef Herman, who was born in Warsaw, lived David Thompson was formerly art critic for The Acknowledgements
for many years in the Welsh mining village of Ystra- Times and now writes regularly for Queen magazine The note by the late Peter Lanyon on Bryan Pearce,
gynlais. He has had several one-man shows at Roland, and Studio International. He has also worked in tele- which first appeared as the introduction for the cata-
Browse & Delbanco and his work is represented in vision and the theatre as well as writing art criticism. logue of Bryan Pearce's exhibition at the St Martin's
43 museums throughout the world. He has written In 1962 his film on Francis Bacon was shown by the Gallery in 1962, is reproduced by kind permission of
books and been the subject of two films. London Film Festival, and another, on Turner, pro- Mrs Lanyon. We also wish to thank the following for
duced by the Arts Council, was released in June. the loan of blocks: Thames and Hudson; Studio
011e Granath is editor of Konstrevy, Sweden's leading Vista; Macdonald and Co.; and Brook Street Gallery.
art journal and regular art critic on the Dagens George Savage, a member of the council of the The reproduction of Francis Morland's sculpture
Nyheter. He formerly worked at the Museum of British Antique Dealers' Association, has written The Kiss in the September issue was by courtesy of
Modern Art, Stockholm. extensively on art and antiques. the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation.