I wish Americans would get over their absurd feelings about nudity. A penis is a penis. Boobs are boobs. We all have one or the other, yet for some reason Americans are completely uncomfortable with the naked body. I blame religion, but that’s another topic for another day. I bring it up because the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, or MoMA, has a new exhibit that forces patrons to walk between or around two nude performers, sometimes opposite sex, sometimes same sex. Patrons are apparently a little uncomfortable. GET OVER IT! It’s art. The next thing you know you’ll want The David covered up. This would never be an issue in Europe. It boggles my mind how we have come so far and yet something as trivial as a nude body at a museum upsets people. This is New York City for God’s sake. A nude person walking down the street would count for normal. Enough ranting. Check out the full MSNBC article after the jump. And if you are in NYC, by all means, go visit Marina Abramovic’s exhibit at MoMa.
Brush with nude art not for everyone at MoMA
Exhibit by Yugoslavian-born artist features naked pair in doorway The Associated Press updated 11:14 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 15, 2010NEW YORK – A new exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art is causing discomfort among some visitors by bringing them close to nude performers — some might say too close.
Two nude performers stand inches apart in a narrow doorway of the exhibit of work by Yugoslavian-born artist Marina Abramovic, which opened on Sunday.
The position of the naked pair, who alternate and are either opposite or same-sex performers, forces patrons to decide whether to walk between them.
To some patrons, a brush with live flesh was just too much to ponder.
Morgan Wolfe, an 18-year-old visitor to the museum, decided not to walk between two male performers.
“It bothers me a bit,” he told the New York Post in Sunday editions.
The exhibit, “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present,” presents a view of Abramovic’s career over four decades and her work in a variety of mediums, including performance art, installations, sound pieces, video works and photographs.
Besides the naked pair in the doorway, the exhibit includes a nude performer lying under a skeleton and a naked woman on a bicycle seat.
Abramovic is best known for performance works in which she exposed herself to physical pain, sometimes involving audience participation.
In one of her most squirm-inducing works, she invited members of the audience to inflict pain on her with one of 72 objects, including a rose, a chain, scissors, knives, a whip and a gun.
The exhibit at the MoMA continues through May 31.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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