ART IN THE STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 142, 15 June 1917, Page 2

ART IN THE STREET.

" SLEEPING VENUS " CRITICISED rROPKIETY OF M'DE STUDY DISPLAY-. The propriety of exhibiting in a shop window open to the public street a picture of a nude female tigure was involved in a case which catne before Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., yesterday afternoon. 11. Spensley Clarkson was charged that he exllibited an indecent document, to wit a picture entitled "Venus Sleeping," within view of by-passers in Queen Street; also that lie had in his possession the aforesaid indecent document.

j In opening the ease Chief Detective MeMahon stated tbat a number of complaints of the class of nude-study pictures exhibited in picture shops had been made to tlie police, and this action was being taken, with tlie consent of the Attorney-General, in order to endeavour to discover the limit of the law on the matter.

Sergeant McCarthy declared that on March 2!) he saw the picture in question, a nude study of a reclining female, undraped, in the window of defendant's shop in Queen Street, known as Wilbar Studio. The picture was exhibited for several days. The shop was in the busiest part of Queen Street, and beside it were two picture theatres, which were patronised by hundreds of boys and girls. Witness noticed boys and girls standing before the window in which the picture was exhibited, and they were laughing and sniggering. The picture might be artistic, but to the man in the street it was suggestive. He disclaimed all knowledge of art, but spoke afi a man in the street. He would not object to the picture if it were in the Art Gallery, where one might expect to see it, but lie considered that it was not a proper picture to exhibit in Queen Street.

The Rev. F. R. Jeffreys stated the opinion that the picture as an exhibit in the public street was indecent. His experience among the youth of the city had convinced him that there was a sa.l lack of proper home-training and schooltraining on sex matters, but that many young people got their knowledge in a vicious way, and on such young people the public exhibition in the street of a picture of the kind under review would have a bad mental effect. Personally, he 'would prefer not to see the picture even in the Art Gallery, .where people of immature minds could go. Howard G. Fountain, dentist, speaking from a knowledge of young people obtained by working among 730 boys in the Y.M.CA. boys' department, gave the opinion that the exhibition of the picture in the street was indecent, as being suggestive to the adolescent mind. He would not object to the exhibition of the picture in an art gallery.

For the defence, Mr. Allan Moody led evidence to the effect that "The Sleeping Venus" was one of the old masterpieces, by Giorgione, who painted it about the year 1500, and it was notable among the many nude studies that were regularly exhibited for their artistic merit. The picture in question was a Medici Society print of the original painting. Defendant stated his opinion that the picture was a proper one for exhibition. In reply to the chief-detective defendant added that he would even recommend that the picture should bo hung in the State schools.

Edward Bartley and Edward Warner, giving evidence as artists and citizens, declared that they could not see that the slightest mental harm could accrue to the average normal young person from the public exhibition of the picture in Queen Street. They would gladly hang the print in their own homes, they said. Bartholomew Kent, president of tbe Society of Arts, was equally imphatic that the exhibition of a "glorious old master" like "The Sleeping Verus" could have no harmful sensuous appeal to the average young mind, but was more likely to arouse in the adolescent some perception, by the strikingly calm, serene comeliness of the face and outline, of the real beauty of art.

In reply to the test question, by the chief-detective, as to wbelher they would care to see the print hung on the walls of the State schools, Mr. Bartley said he thought it scarcely a suitable subject for that; Mr. Kent was of opinion that, with proper explanation by the teacher, the picture could be safely exhibited to school children-, and Mr. Warner unreservedly urged that the exhibition of and instruction in classic nude studies in the schools would immensely improve the general mental outlook on sex subjects. His Worship stated that he had the | honest opinions of those educated in art I who could see nothing but good in the picture, and the equa'.'y honest opinion of others giving the man-in-the-street viewpoint to the emphatic effect that | mental harm must accrue from the indiscriminate exhibition of the subject |He would require time to consider the , matter, and would give a written decision later.