The Female Nude: Pornography, Art, and Sexuality

Author(s): Lynda Nead

Source: Signs, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Winter, 1990), pp. 323-335
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174488 .
Accessed: 05/04/2014 10:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Signs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE FEMALE NUDE: PORNOGRAPHY,
ART,AND SEXUALITY

LYNDA NEAD

To my mind art exists in the realm of contemplation,and is

bound by some sort of imaginative transposition.The mo-
ment art becomes an incentive to action it loses its true
character.This is my objection to paintingwith a communist
programme,and it would also apply to pornography.[KEN-
NETH CLARK, testimonyto the Lord Longford committee on
pornography]

The evidence given by Kenneth Clark, one of the world's leading

art historians, to Lord Longford's committee on pornography in
Britain,in 1972 is just one fragmentofa vast body of discourses that
has been produced on the subject of pornographyover the last few
decades.' The Longford committee was a privately sponsored
investigationthat claimed to represent public opinion. Its report,
published in the formof a mass-marketpaperback and launched in
a blaze ofpublicity,fueled the pornographydebate in Britainin the
1970s. From the seventies onward, feminists, moral crusaders,
governments,and various other pressure groups have presented
their views on the issue, with the result that pornography has
become one of the most fiercely and publicly contested areas
within contemporarycultural production.2

1 Quoted in Lord Longford,Pornography: The

Longford Report (London: Coro-
net, 1972), 99-100.
2 The
publishedmaterialon pornography
is extensiveso it is difficult
to extract
a
handful
oftextsthataccurately thedebate.A veryusefulselectionofBritish
represent
[Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1990, vol. 15, no. 2]
? 1990byThe University
ofChicago.All rights
reserved.0097-9740/90/1502-0008$01.00

323

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

Perhapsone of the mostdisablinglimitationsof much of this

public debate has been the attemptto look at pornography-as a
discreterealmof representation, cut offand clearlydistinctfrom
otherformsof culturalproduction.This perspectiveis frequently
attendedby the view thatthe pornographic resides in the image,
thatitis a questionofcontentratherthanform, ofproductionrather
thanconsumption.Even when pornography is definedin termsof
its circulation,as a matterof audience expectations,markets,and
institutions, it is still separatedoffas thoughit existsin isolation
and can be understoodoutside of its points of contactwith the
widerdomainofculturalrepresentation.
To suggestthatpornography needs to be examinedin relation
to otherformsof culturalproduction,however,is not to move
towardthe positionthatclaims thatall of patriarchalcultureis
thereforepornographic.It is simplyto argue that we need to
specifythe ways in which pornography is definedand held in
place. We need to get behind the commonsense notions of
pornography in order to uncover the processesby which the term
has been definedand thehistoricalchangesin theterm'smeaning.
At any particularmomentthereis no one unifiedcategoryof the
pornographicbut rathera strugglebetween several competing
definitionsof decency and indecency.As JohnEllis has written,
"These definitionswill workwithina contextdefinedby several
forces,the currentformof the pornographyindustryand its
particularattemptsat legitimisation;the particularformsof the
laws relating to obscenity and censorship; and the general
mobilisationof various moral and philosophical positions and
themes that characterisea particularsocial moment."3Ellis's
commentsbegin to move the debate toward a model of the
discursiveformation of pornography; a formation thatincludes its
operationsas an industry, its forms of distribution and consump-
tion,itsvisual codings, and its very status as the illicit.
One of the most significantways in which pornographyis
historically definedis in relationto otherformsofculturalproduc-
tion;we know thepornographic in termsofitsdifference, in terms
ofwhat it is not. The most to
commonplaceopposition pornography
is art. If art is a reflectionof the highest social values, then
pornographyis a symptomof a rottensociety;if art stands for

feministwritingsis reprinted in Rosemary Betterton,ed., Looking On: Images of

Femininityin the Visual Arts and Media (London and New York: Pandora, 1987),
143-202.
3 John Ellis, "Photography/Pornography/Art/Pornography," Screen 21, no. 1
(Spring 1980): 81-108, quote on 83.

324

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

lasting,universalvalues, thenpornography representsdisposabil-

ity,trash.Artis a sign of cleanlinessand licit morality, whereas
pornography symbolizes filthand theillicit.
In thiscultural system,
aestheticvaluesreadilycommunicate sexualand moralvalues.This
is thebasis ofKennethClark'stestimony in whichartand pornog-
raphyare definedin termsoftheireffectson the spectator.Artis
pacifyingand contemplative,whereas communistpaintingand
pornographyincite the viewer to action and thereforecannot
belongto the realmofhighartisticculture.4
Althoughconventionally artand pornography are set up in this
oppositionalrelationship, they can be seen instead as two terms
withina greatersignifying system that is continuallybeing rede-
finedand thatincludes othercategories,such as obscenity,the
erotic,and the sensual.All ofthesetermsoccupyparticularsexual
and culturalspaces; none of themcan be understoodin isolation
sinceeach dependson theotherforitsmeaning.Fromthisposition
we can begin to examine the changinghistoricalrelationships
betweenthetermsand thewaysin whichtheboundariesbetween
these categorieshave been and continueto be policed in orderto
maintainthe aestheticand the pornographic as a necessaryideo-
in
logicalpolarity patriarchalsociety.

The femalenude:Policingthe boundaries

It is oftenat the veryedge of social categoriesthatthe workof
definitiontakes place most energeticallyand that meaning is
anchoredmostforcefully. Forarthistory,thefemalenude is bothat
the centerand at the marginsof high culture.It is at the center
because withinarthistoricaldiscoursepaintingsof the nude are
seen as thevisualculmination ofRenaissanceidealismand human-
ism. This authorityis neverthelessalways under threat,forthe
nude also standsattheedge oftheartcategory, whereitriskslosing
itsrespectability
and spillingoutand overintothepornographic. It
is the vagueness and instabilityof such culturaldefinitionsthat
makethese marginalareas so open and precarious.Since pornog-
raphymaybe definedas anyrepresentation thatachievesa certain
degree of sexual explicitness,arthas to be protectedfrombeing
engulfedby pornography in orderto maintainits positionas the
4 It is Kant's
theoryofthe self-containedaesthetic experience thatis at the bottom
of all this,but in Clark's usage it becomes simplifiedand popularized, an accessible
formula for cultural definition(see Immanuel Kant, Critique
of Aesthetic Judge-
ment,trans.J. C. Meredith [Oxford:Clarendon, 1911]).

325

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

opposition topornography. In otherwords,through a processofmutual

definition,thetwocategories keepeachotherandthewholesystemin
place. Categoriessuchas theeroticandthesensualplayan important
roleas middletermsin the system-defining whatcan or cannotbe
seen,differentiating allowableandillicitrepresentations ofthefemale
body,and categorizing respectableand nonrespectable formsofcul-
turalconsumption.
Withinthehistory ofart,thefemalenudeis notsimplyone subject
among others, one form amongmany,itis thesubject,theform.It is a
paradigm of Western high culturewithitsnetwork ofcontingent val-
ues: civilization, edification, and aestheticpleasure.The femalenude
is also a signof thoseother,morehiddenpropertiesof patriarchal
culture, thatis,possession,power,andsubordination. The femalenude
worksbothas a sexualand a culturalcategory, butthisis notsimplya
matterofcontentor someintrinsic meaning.The signification ofthe
femalenude cannotbe separatedfromthe historicaldiscoursesof
culture,thatis, the representation ofthenude by criticsand arthis-
torians.These textsdo notsimplyanalyzean alreadyconstituted area
ofculturalknowledge, rather,theyactively define culturalknowledge.
The nude is alwaysorganizedintoa particular culturalindustry and
thuscirculatesnew definitions ofclass,gender,and morality. More-
over,representations ofthefemalenudecreatedbymaleartists testify
notonlyto patriarchal understandings of female sexuality femi-
and
but
ninity, they also endorse certaindefinitionsof male sexuality and
masculinity.
In Britainin the 1970s,thediscourseofcriticsand arthistorians
was implicatedin a radical redefinition of sexuality.In the art
world,there were renewed to
efforts pin down thefemalenude in
highartso as to free it from debasing associations withthe sexual.
These efforts were countered by other attempts implicatethe
to
images of high culture in the pornographic. In the 1980s context
and
createdby AIDS, politicalconservatism, religiousrevivalism,
thedebateregarding sexualityand representation thattookplace in
the 1970s has taken on a renewed significance.The boundaries
betweenart and pornography continue to shiftand toraisecomplex
issues for feminist cultural and sexual politics.
The decade ofthesixtiesin Britainwas characterized bya series
of legislative reforms in the sphere of moral and sexual conduct.
StuartHall has describedthe generaltendencyofBritishnational
legislationin the 1960s as the shifttoward"increasedregulation
coupled withselectiveprivatisation throughcontractor consent."5

5 StuartHall, "Reformismand the Legislation of Consent," in Permissivenessand

Control: The Fate of the Sixties Legislation, ed. National Deviancy Conference
(London: Macmillan, 1980), 1-43, quote on 18.
326

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

The Sexual OffencesAct of 1967 changed the laws on male

homosexuality, decriminalizingprivatesexual relationsbetween
adult males. In the same year,the AbortionAct extended the
groundsfora lawfultermination of pregnancy,and the Family
PlanningActintroducedwiderprovisionofcontraceptives by local
authorities. Otherlegislationmade divorcemoreaccessible (1969)
and introducedthe defenseof literarymeritinto trialscharging
publicationswith obscenity(1959 and 1964). At the same time,
modification of cinema and theatercensorshipallowed more ex-
plicitportrayals ofsexualityin filmand on thestage.This seriesof
legislative reforms representsa shiftin the styleof moralregula-
tion.AlthoughcollectivelytheBritishlegislationshiftedtowardthe
general directionof a more relaxed,permissivemoralcode, the
reforms ofthesixtiesshouldbe recognizedas a revisionofan older
conservativemoralismand an attemptto createa liberal formof
moralityat a momentwhen the main political and economic
tendencieswere also in the directionofa morelibertarian formof
capitalism.
Beginningin thelate 1960s,thenotionofpermissiveness began
to take on a particularsymbolicimportance.With signs of a
breakdownin the old order,a growingsense of social crisisgave
way,by the early 1970s, to a generalizedmoralpanic-a moral
backlashagainstthe permissivelegislationof the 1960s. On the
Left,the women's movementand the emerginggay liberation
movementchallengedthe extentof the liberalismofthe reforms,
whileon theRight,therewas a revivalofmoraltraditionalism, led,
with evangelical fervor,by individualssuch as Malcolm Mug-
geridge,MaryWhitehouse,and Lord Longford.Accordingto this
new authoritarian thesixtieslegislationhad been thefinal
morality,
nail in the coffinoftraditionalvalues and Christianmorality. The
faction'sleaders called fora returnto familyvalues and retrench-
mentbehind the institutions of law and order. The focusforthis
moralpanic was the issue of pornography. Obscene and blasphe-
mousmaterialwas seen to be the sourceofsocial and moraldecay,
underminingthe familyand corrupting both the public and the
privatespheres.As Jeffrey Weeks has commented,pornography
became forthe moralcrusadersofthe 1970swhatprostitution had
been forthe social puritansof the 1880s-a symbolof decay and
social breakdown.7
The new moralismofthe 1970s focusedon the image and the
word. In the early 1970s therewas a clusterof prosecutionsfor
6
See Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since
1800 (London and New York: Longman, 1981), 273-88, on which this discussion of
seventies moralism is based.
7
Ibid., 280.

327

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

obscenity:the NationalViewers and ListenersAssociationorga-

nized a popularcampaignagainstimmorality in broadcasting, and
in 1972 Lord Longfordpublishedhis reporton pornography. The
Longfordreportconcludedthatexposuretopornography adversely
affectedsocial behaviorand morality. The state,it seemed, could
notbe relied on to maintainsexual standards,and the reportcited
the Danish and Americansituationsas examplesofthe stateeither
failingto cohereand reflectpublic attitudesoradoptinga radically
libertarianposition.8The mostimportant pointtobe made aboutall
these tacticsis thatmoralregulationin the 1970s tookthe formof
the regulationof representations of sexualityas opposed to regu-
lationofsexual behavior.Indeed, representation was at the center
ofdiscourseson sexualityduringthe period.
In the contextof this public debate, culturalclassification
became particularlysignificant, and the differentiation of terms
such as the eroticand the obscene tookon a heightenedimpor-
tance.The aesthetichad tobe distinguished fromthetitillating; art
had to be sealed offfrompornography.
highculturehas provideda space fora viable form
Historically,
ofsexualrepresentation: thatwhichis aestheticized,contained,and
allowed. In the 1970sthissitehad to be reinforced and shoredup.
The differences between paintingsof the femalenude and "pin-
ups," glamourphotography, soft-and hard-coreporn had to be
redefined.During this period the BritishLibrarycataloged the
1976 editionof KennethClark'shighartsurvey,The Nude, in the
general stacks but relegated ArthurGoldsmith'sThe Nude in
Photographyand Michael Busselle's Nude and GlamourPhotog-
raphyto the special locked cases.9The special cases are reserved
for books that are prone to theftor damage and that include
commercialor titillatingrepresentations of sex, in otherwords,
books that are regarded as an incitement to action ratherthan
contemplativereading. In the 1970s, photographsof the female
nude clearly were seen to fall withinthese guidelines; but the
images included in Clark's text escaped the contaminating associ-
ations of pornographyand could be consulted withoutfearful
8 See
Longford,pt. 1, chap. 7. Longford discusses the American congressional
"Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography,September 1970"
(Washington,D.C.: Government Printing Office, September 30, 1970), which re-
jected any clear correlationbetween pornographyand acts of sexual violence and
advocated a liberalizing of sex education in order to foster "healthy" sexual
development. The reportresulted in a split between members of the commission
and was rejected by the Senate and president.
9 Kenneth Clark, The Nude (Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1976); ArthurGoldsmith,
The Nude in Photography (London: Octopus, 1976); Michael Busselle, Nude and
Glamour Photography (London: Macdonald, 1981).

328

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

consequences to eitherthe book or the reader.In this way the

classificationsof the BritishLibrarymap on to the conventional
oppositionofhighand low culture,offineartversusmass media.
Withintraditional aesthetics,the paintinghas a peculiarstatus.
Valuedas an authenticand unique object,thesingularproductofa
the paintingis, as VictorBurginwrites,
special act of creativity,
"partholyrelic,partgilt-edgedsecurity."'? In contrast,thematerial
and culturalvalue ofthephotograph is reducedby itsreproducibil-
ity,and the photographcarriesnone ofthe connotations ofhuman
agency and culturaldignity.Unlike the connoisseur of highart,the
consumerofphotographic artdoes notpossess a unique object,and
withinthepolarityofhighand low art,thephotograph is devalued
as the productofmass technology, popular and vulgar.
Thus, paintingsofthe femalenude such as thoseillustratedin
Clark'sbookwere set apartphysicallyas well as symbolically from
photographicimages of the female nude. With obscenity the
as
focus of sexual regulation,high art had to be maintainedas an
edifying,moral, and privileged formof culturalconsumption.
Emphasiswas placed on the nude as an ideal formthatembodies
perfection,universality, and unity.These conventionswere in
opposition to the codes and functions of pornography-
fragmentation, titillation.
particularity, Above all else, paintingsof
the femalenude had to be closed offfromany associationswith
commercialismor sexual arousal. Refusingthe connotationof
commodity, the discourseofhighartretreatedintoa vocabularyof
contemplation and aestheticresponse.As KennethClarkexplained
to the Longfordcommittee:

In a picturelike Correggio'sDanae the sexualfeelingshave

been transformed, and althoughwe undoubtedlyenjoyit all
themorebecause ofitssensuality, we are stillin therealmof
contemplation. The pornographic wall-paintings in Pompeii
are documentaries and havenothingtodo withart.Thereare
one or two doubtfulcases-a smallpictureofcopulationby
Gericaultand a Rodinbronzeofthe same subject.Although
each ofthese is a trueworkofart,I personallyfeel thatthe
subject comes between me and completeaestheticenjoy-
ment.It is like too stronga flavouradded to a dish. There
remainstheextraordinary exampleofRembrandt's etchingof
a couple on a bed, where I do not findthe subject at all
disturbingbecause it is seen entirelyin humantermsand is
10Victor
Burgin, The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity(London:
Macmillan, 1986), 42.

329

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

not intended to promote action. But it is, I believe, unique,

and only Rembrandtcould have done it.1

In the end, Clark comes up with an extremely personal and

idiosyncraticset of distinctions.Indeed, it is the very obscurityof
his criteriathatis most striking.His definitionrests on a precarious
differentiationbetween a sensuality that can be incorporated
within aesthetic contemplation and a sexuality that disrupts this
response and becomes an incitementto behavior. Sensuality thus
performsan essential role, signifyinga formof sexual representa-
tion that remains within the permissible limits of art.
But other art historians during the 1970s did not seek to keep
high art as a discrete, desexualized category.In fact,they deliber-
ately sought to break open and redefine the category's boundaries
and to address directly the representation of the sexual within
paintings of the female nude. Far frombeing a separate plane of
activity,art, they claimed, participates in the social definition of
male and female sexuality.Three of these texts,all of which were
produced outside of the mainstream of art history,reveal the
competing definitionsthatwere thrownup by the issue of cultural
representationand sexuality during this period.
John Berger's Ways of Seeing, firstpublished in 1972, estab-
lished a fundamental distinction between female nakedness and
nudity.Whereas the nude is always subjected to pictorial conven-
tions, "To be naked," he writes, "is to be oneself."'2 In this
framework,Berger juxtaposes European oil paintings with photo-
graphs from soft porn magazines, identifyingthe same range of
poses, gestures,and looks in both mediums. The particularityofthe
medium and cultural formis not important.What matters is the
repertoire of conventions that all nudes are believed to deploy,
irrespective of historical or cultural specificity.But according to
Berger there are a few valuable exceptions to the voyeurismthatis
constructedthroughthe European high art tradition.

They are no longer nudes-they break the norms of the

art-form;they are paintings of loved women, more or less
naked. Among the hundreds of thousands of nudes which
make up the traditionthere are perhaps a hundred of these
exceptions. In each case the painter's personal vision of the
particularwomen he is painting is so strongthatit makes no
allowance for the spectator.... The spectator can witness

11Quoted in Longford (n. 1 above), 100.

12
John Berger,Ways of Seeing (London: BBC & Penguin, 1972), 54.

330

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

theirrelationship-buthe can do no more; he is forcedto

recognisehimselfas the outsiderhe is. He cannotdeceive
himselfintobelievingthatshe is naked forhim.He cannot
turnher intoa nude.13

Berger's evocation of the hundred or so exceptionsto the

traditionof the female nude in European art assumes that the
relationshipbetween the male artistand the female model, a
heterosexualrelationship,is inherently naturaland good. Power,
forBerger,is constituted as public.Privaterelationships lie outside
thedomainofpower;love transforms thenudeintoa nakedwoman
and preventsthe male spectator,the outsider,fromturningthe
femalefigureinto a voyeuristicspectacle.This interpretation, of
course,is entirelybased on a naive,humanistfaithin the honesty
and equalityofprivateheterosexualrelationships. It also assumesa
familiarity withartisticbiography;the spectatorneeds to knowthe
natureoftherelationship betweena particular artistand his model
in orderto make this readingof the picture.Significantly, both
Bergerand LordClark,in his statement totheLongfordcommittee,
invokepaintingsby Rembrandtas unique representations of sex.
Greatartists,apparently, produceexceptionalimagesregardlessof
subject-matter, and culturalvalue is thus a safe index of moral
worth.
Linda Nochlin'sfeminist essay,"Eroticismand Female Imagery
in Nineteenth-Century Art,"also publishedin 1972,representsone
voice fromthe women's movement,which duringthis period
addressedthe construction ofpatriarchy in highculture.14Nochlin
sharesBerger'sanalysisofthe femalenude as a patriarchalimage
formale consumption, butshe goes muchfurther, rejectingtheidea
ofthepersonaleroticimageryofindividualmale artistsin favorof
a social basis forthesexualdefinitions establishedin imagesofthe
femalenude. She also pointsto theabsence ofanypublic imagery
forwomen'sdesiresand calls foran available languageto express
women's eroticneeds. This call forfemaleeroticawas partof a
muchwiderdemandbymembersofthewomen'smovementduring
the early1970s. Unfortunately, Nochlin'sargumentwas recastby
the publisher'sdust jacket to once again presentfemale erotica

13
Ibid., 57.
14Linda Nochlin, "Eroticism and Female Imageryin
Nineteenth-CenturyArt,"in
Woman as Sex Object: Studies in Erotic Art, 1730-1970, ed. Thomas B. Hess and
Linda Nochlin (London and New York: Allen Lane, 1972), 8-15. For a detailed
discussion ofthis collection ofessays, see Lise Vogel, "Fine Artsand Feminism: The
Awakening Conscience," Feminist Studies 2, no. 1 (1974): 3-37.

331

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

froma male perspective."The book is superblyillustratedand

combinesthe pleasuresofa richcatalogueofesotericerotica,with
the satisfaction ofa penetrating and originalstudy."
Anothereffortto redefinesexualityand sexual pleasure in
relationto the visual artscan be seen in PeterWebb's The Erotic
Arts,firstpublishedin 1975.The book is a paradigmofthe sexual
libertarianism thatemergedin the late 1960s and continuedinto
the 1970s,particularly withincertainsectionsofthe gayliberation
movement.ForWebb,sexualfreedomwas synonymous withsocial
freedom,and sexual liberationwas the firststep towardsocial
revolution.Webb challengeddirectlythe antipornography lobby
and obscenitytrialsof the early1970s,which set up liberationin
oppositionto the authoritarian morality ofcensorship.Webb,how-
ever, was also keen to isolate a categoryof eroticartfromthatof
pornography. "Pornography is related to obscenityratherthan
eroticaand this is a vital distinction.Althoughsome people may
finda pornographic pictureerotic,mostpeople associateeroticism
withlove,ratherthansex alone,and love has littleorno partto play
in pornography.. .. Eroticism,therefore,has none ofthe pejorative
associationsofpornography; it concernssomethingvitalto us, the
passion of love. Erotic artis art on a sexual themerelatedspecifi-
cally to emotions rather than merelyactions,and sexualdepictions
which are justifiableon aestheticgrounds."'5Webb assumes an
essentialistmodel ofhumansexuality, conceivingofitas a driving,
instinctive forcethatmustfindexpressionthrougheitherlegitimate
or illegitimatechannels.In his attemptto distinguisheroticartand
pornography, he relies on a familiarset ofoppositions:love versus
sex, aesthetic value versusbad art,and feelingor emotionversus
action.Again,as withthearguments ofClarkand Berger,thereis a
juggling of aesthetic and moral criteriain order to justifyone
of
category representation and to invalidate another.'6

The female nude and sexual metaphor

In the three examples considered above, the authorsdirectly
addresstheissue ofsexualdefinition but
in culturalrepresentation,
theydo so fromdifferent politicaland moralstandpoints.In the
15Peter Webb, The Erotic Arts (London: Secker & Warburg,1975), 2.
Interestingly,both Webb and Berger argue that Oriental art offershonest and
16

frankrepresentationsof sex as opposed to the repressed and unhealthy sexuality of

Western bourgeois art. In this way, they support the racist mythology of the
unrestrained sexuality of non-European races and perpetuate the particular art
historical version of the ideology of primitivism.

332

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

mainstream ofarthistory,however,the approachis moreindirect;

sex has to be implicitratherthan explicitin orderto keep the
art/contemplation couplingintactand to maintaintheconventional
polarityof artand pornography. Withintraditionalaesthetics,the
language of connoisseurshiphas developed as an expressionof
aestheticjudgment,taste,and value. The way language is mobi-
lized in discussionsof paintingsof the femalenude allows us to
assess the role ofsexual metaphorin recentartcriticism.
As culturalcommodities,oil paintingshave been relishedby
criticsand art historians,and the practiceof applyingpaint to
canvas has been chargedwithsexual connotations. Lightcaresses
form,shapes become voluptuous,coloris sensuous,and the paint
itselfis luxuriouslyphysical.This representationofartisticproduc-
tionsupportsthe dominantstereotype ofthemale artistas produc-
tive, active, controlling,a man whose sexualityis channeled
throughhis brush,who findsexpressionand satisfaction through
the act of painting.'7The artisttransmutes matterintoform.The
canvas is the emptybut receptivesurface,emptyof meaning-
naked-until it is inscribedand given meaningby him. Surface
textureis thuschargedwithsignificance; the markson the canvas
are essentialtracesofhumanagency,evidenceofart,and also signs
ofsexual virility, a kindofmasculineidentity.
These phallic and sexual metaphorstake on an astonishing
resonance when the paintingis of a female nude. The artist
transmutesmatterinto the formof the femalebody-the nude,
ideal, perfect,the objectofcontemplation and delectation.Within
thediscourseofarthistory, sex is written
intodescriptionsofpaint,
surface,and form.The categoryof artdoes notpermita sexuality
thatis an obviousorprovocativeelement,butsuchsexualitycan be
articulatedin thediscussionofa particular painting'shandlingand
style.The sexual,then,is distancedfromthe subjectrepresented
on the canvas and is definedinstead throughthe metaphorical
languageofconnoisseurship. LawrenceGowing,forexample,de-
scribesa smallfemalefigurein a Matisseinterior as "abandon(ing)
herselfto the colour."'8In Nude Painting,Michael Jacobsrefersto
Titian'sNymphand Shepherd,in which"thedynamicsoffleshand
blood are revealedin theirraweststate,all distracting movement,
colourand meaningare strippedawayby therigorousharshnessof
theartist'slatestyle."'9
AndMalcolmCormackdescribesa Veronese
17For an importantdiscussion of the metaphorof penis-as-paintbrush,see Carol
Duncan, "The EstheticsofPowerin ModernErotic Art,"Heresies, no. 1 (January1977),
46-50.
18 Lawrence
Gowing, Matisse (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), 63.
19Michael
Jacobs, Nude Painting (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), 24.

333

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nead / THE FEMALENUDE

in which "the whole is a riot of the senses where the sensuous

mode of expression emphasises the theme."20
However, the issue of the representationof the female nude is
not simply a question ofthe male artistor viewer imposing order on
and controlling the canvas or the female body. There is another
relationship at stake. The mythologyof artisticgenius proposes a
model of masculinity and male sexuality that is free-ranging,
unbounded, needing to be contained within forms.21 Woman and
femininity provide that cultural frame; woman controls and regu-
lates the impetuous and individualistic brush. In a review of an
exhibition of impressionist drawings at the Ashmolean in Oxford,
the art critic William Feaver considered the representationof the
female nude. "A Renoir drawing 'Nude Woman Seen from the
Back, in red chalk with touches of white, illustrates more clearly
than any painting the Impressionist concept of untrammelled
instinct:Renoir's caress, Monet's spontaneity.But drawingwas the
basis. Withoutit Renoir would have been incoherent."22 Justwhat is
invoked by "the Impressionist concept of untrammelledinstinct"?
What are we to make of "Renoir's caress" and "Monet's spontane-
ity"? Artistsand lovers, paintings and sex are collapsed into each
other. Masculinity is defined as the site of unregulated instinct,
potentiallyanarchic and incoherent. But the discipline of drawing
and the formof the female nude-high culture and femininity-
give order to this incoherence; togetherthey civilize and tame the
wild expressiveness of male sexuality.
Thus, pictures ofthe female nude are not about female sexuality
in any simplistic way; they also testifyto a particular cultural
definitionof male sexuality and are part of a wider debate around
representation and cultural value. The female nude is both a
cultural and a sexual category;it is partofa cultural industrywhose
languages and institutionspropose specific definitionsof gender
and sexuality and particularformsof knowledge and pleasure.
The relationship between artand pornographyas illustratedby
the British discourse explored here begins to reveal the ways in
which cultural and aesthetic designations are mapped onto the
moral and sexual values ofWesternpatriarchalculture generally.To
date, the popular debate about pornographyin both Britain and
America has focused on a limited and rather too familiar set of
issues. At the center is the issue of legal censorship. Debate about
censorship has become polarized between those who advocate
Cormack, The Nude in WesternArt (Oxford: Phaidon, 1976), 25.
20 Malcolm
On the mythologyof male artistic genius, see G. Pollock, "Artists,Media,
21

Mythologies: Genius, Madness and ArtHistory,"Screen 21, no. 3 (1980): 57-96.

2 William Feaver, The Observer (March 25, 1986), 25.

334

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Winter1990/SIGNS

state interventionto ban pornographicmaterialand those who

invoketherightofindividualfreedomofchoice,particularly as itis
reflectedby theprivateconsumption ofpornography as opposed to
its public display.Supportersof state intervention argue thatat
issue is the safetyof women,thatpornographicrepresentations
inciteviolence againstwomen.Yet,social investigation, empirical
and personaltestimony
research,statistics, have been used bothto
endorseand to refutethe linksbetweenpornography and acts of
sexualviolence.23 Besides the ambiguitiesconcerningthese inves-
tigationsand theirconclusions,some of the social effectsof por-
nography, such as women'sfear,embarrassment, and anger,cannot
be measuredand accountedforin any straightforward way.
The parallelsbetweenthepoles ofthisdebate and thepoles of
the pornography/art debate are striking.
Bothdebates focuson the
impetusto actionas a criterionforclassification of images of the
femalenude. Artcriticsargueoverthe meritsof sensual or erotic
images,and thosewho wouldeitherregulateorderegulatepornog-
raphyargueovertheimplicationsofa patriarchal representation of
femaleand male sexuality.These parallels suggestthatthe rela-
tionshipbetween representation and reality,image and action,is
not goingto be resolvedby tuggingempiricaldata backwardand
forwardbetweenpositions.Rather,the meaningsoferoticismand
obscenity,sensualityand sexuality,art and pornography change
overtime,theirboundariesshapedby theformsand institutions of
cultureand society.Thus,censorshipis onlya provisionalstrategy
by whichto "contain"patriarchal culture;it is a categorization that
reflectspornography's present definitionas outside the norm,as
deviant,hidden culture.Only by continuingto examinethe com-
plexitywithwhichsuchcategorizations as pornography and artmap
out broad culturalnotionsof the licit and the illicitand societal
notionsofmale and femalesexualitywill we cometo a moresubtle
understanding ofthe implicationsofimagesofthe femalenude.

Departmentof HistoryofArt
BirkbeckCollege, University
of London

23In the social sciences there have been many publications on the
relationship
between exposure to images and resulting action. Recently, the publication in
Britainof the Minneapolis public hearings on pornography(1983) has endorsed the
link between the use of pornographic material and acts of sexual
violence; see
Pornographyand Sexual Violence: Evidence of the Links: The Complete Transcript
of Public Hearings on Ordinances to Add Pornography as Discrimination against
Women: Minneapolis City Council, GovernmentOperations Committee,December
12 and 13, 1983 (London: Everywoman, 1988).

335

This content downloaded from 128.175.13.10 on Sat, 5 Apr 2014 10:06:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions