I’ll be brief. I just want to have a short rant. This could be the place for that?!
We just went to a local art and craft exhibition. And there, on display, no doubt with gardens in mind, were several statues of naked women. Which reminded me just how much I do not want to see statues of naked women in gardens.
I don’t care about cultural preferences. I do not want to hear about the long history of such images in dead people’s gardens. Here is one of those, at Rousham,
Which is very much a dead person’s garden, but it does do naked men as well:
Whoopee.
It also does a lion eating a horse, so how much better could it get??
Unbelievable, what people want to look at in their gardens.
Anyway, at this exhibition, there were these statues for sale:
My friend asked whether this is how I relax in the garden?
One of these IS dressed. Great. I’m not totally sure it’s an improvement.
This one also had a dress on but looked as if she was about to remove it:
(You can see it was a very rural exhibition)
This artist likes grey women.
Now, it’s not that I want to get all prissy correct and cancel whoever made these. But I spent my youth failing to be the sex object we all then felt we had to be and this stuff is an unpleasant reminder of that pressure to present ourselves to be gawped at.
And in the garden, for heaven’s sake. Out there in all weathers. This is art by and for people who also have no empathy. You may love looking at naked women in your garden – but in the middle of winter??? In a snow storm??? A howling gale?? Really? Wouldn’t it make you shiver??
We have a statue of a naked man in our local town, Chepstow.
He originally had all his equipment, but that was not popular, so he was neutered. Last winter I noticed that some kind person shared my preoccupation with nakedness in the cold :
Maybe that is what naked women in gardens need too.
It’s a bit odd isn’t it. I genuinely don’t understand the preoccupation with nude statues in gardens. If I did my best impression of the statue in the second picture I would be removed from the garden by officers of His Majesty’s Constabulary and put in a cell, yet nude statues lounging around is deemed acceptable.
And we’re not always talking about one or two tasteful statues either; sometimes there’s a veritable Roman orgy of statues knocking around in gardens, leading anyone of sound mind to wonder about the garden’s owner. Some of them are surprisingly bold in their detail… unnecessarily bold.
I would support a cap on the number of nude statues permissible in public gardens, maybe one per acre of garden?
But at least there’s one thing we can all be grateful for:
Better to have these nude statues with some effort at being artful rather than those vulgar nude gnomes that you see from time to time.
Nude gnomes!!!??? Heavens, worse than lions eating horses.
I love statues in my garden but my statues are either clothed or are animals: foxes and dogs. Perhaps a naked statue near a pond might make some sense though?
Suggesting a sudden happy drowning, perhaps?
As far as I am concerned, it’s the quality of the art. I’d never turn down a well-done original sculpture by an accomplished artist no matter what body parts it may or may not depict. And clearly we see such in many well-regarded gardens, pretty much everywhere. I’m fine with it, within those parameters.
This has given me images in my head which might keep me awake at night….
Thank you for putting into words what I was feeling ( subconsciously even) We have these sculptures/statues shoved into our eyes at every turn when I visit a public garden ( except for a Japanese one…thank you very much!!!) I have my limits, Gargoyles are always acceptable in my book… Humans (NO CHILDREN!) must be Greek or Roman ( Italian) Horses are preferred, then lions dragons and oh gargoyles! A well placed gnome is better than any badly done reclining modern age naked woman..perfect breasts or no… the last thing besides children that I want to see ( usually placed at eye level) is a lifesized rendition of the old bat and balls ( so tiresome really)
Exactly!
The statues are not sexual. They’re art. The human form is a work of art. Would you think it’s weird to have a fox statue without covering it up for modesty?
Queen Victoria, do you also cover up the legs of your tables and chairs and thinkpatent leather shoes should be banned?
Blimey, that dates you!
There is no requirement that you look at them.
You think there should be a trigger warning?
Our small town is home to a sculpture artist who seems to specialize in larger than life people, one of which is a naked man that is probably 15 feet tall. He has been adorned over the years with various scarves and capes. Once, someone (likely the local high schoolers) somehow managed to outfit him with a well made athletic support (Jock strap) and once a long, firm baguette was impaled on his dangly bits. It was hysterical! The locals have learned to drive with care on the road in front of him as tourists have been known to come to a stop in the street when they round the curve and first see him.
Kandi,
Where do you live?
(Asking for a friend)
Northern California (Auburn)
Wonderful!
Art is very personal, I mean people love one thing and hate other things passionately. I don’t understand what meaning art had in anyone’s garden. Most if the pieces shown here don’t have universal appeal, for one thing. And yes, i agree with you, enough of naked women everywhere in public!
Yes!
Rousham is of it’s time. And how I love it. I was looking at the vast horse’ s head at Wisley last week. Horrible !
That horse’s head is revolting!
You think you’ve got it bad? Google Bathtub Mary.
https://www.newbedfordguide.com/new-bedford-cultural-perspectives-where-does-the-bathtub-jesus-come-from/2018/11/19?print=print
Maybe the naysayers should visit the beautiful Vigeland sculpture installation in Oslo, Norway.
Hmm…
No!
I have long wanted a Mary in a Bathtub for my garden, having seen them all over in Central Minnesota when I was a child visiting relatives. All very Catholic folk. This makes me want to look a little harder for a bathtub…
And Anne, I agree with you: I just don’t need to see the nudes. Though I did always like the controversial statue at a local Iowa mall that was eventually removed–a naked angel on a trike that just made me laugh. You can check it out here: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2014/02/20/merle-hay-malls-naked-angel-on-tricycle-sculpture-landed-on-thompson-avenue/5653807/
Oh, I like that angel! A whole different kettle of fish. (!)
My grandmother was a genuine victorian who used to scold my mother for letting us wear shorts in the summer (in godforsaken west Texas!!), which displayed our “long shanks”. She was so offended by the human body that when her book club sent a novel called Desireé, about Napoleon’s girlfriend, Grandmother (heavens, never Nana or Memaw) carefully cut out and glued a paper addition to the cover illustration that covered the woman’s decolletage and rendered her less likely to inflame anyone’s lust. (Mind you, Grandmother had five children.) l can only imagine her reaction to nekkid statues amongst her zinnias and squash.
But now l’m picturing Apollo with an apron. She had lots of aprons.
Nice one!
Don’t remember where or when or who, but someone bought a house in a posh, very sedate white bread neighborhood and littered their landscape with Greek and Roman style nudes. Which they then painted in full living color.
Authentic at least!
Couldn’t agree more! I’ve been to garden shows so littered with statues of naked women I started looking around for Antony Gormley.
There’s a whole multitude of things out there that aren’t naked women. Why not try depicting them?
Yes – sculptures can be so much more.
This reminds me of my next door neighbors who lived in England for a long time. They talked about how prudish Americans were. I’m guessing this mostly had to do with their experiences with TV in each location. We took them to an Edward Albee play in which the four actors (Man, Woman, Boy, Girl) were completely nude for the first 30 minutes or so. They were shocked because they didn’ expect that in America. I don’t understand why a statute of a nude person is inappropriate in a garden, but a statute of any other animal in the nude is OK.
It’s not inappropriate, and I love your story, but it’s not about prudishness. But I think things are changing in the UK and America, and people are begining to understand these issues.
Why do you have to be perfect to enjoy a nude sculpture?
This has been the most entertaining rant I’ve read yet and the comments equally so.
A wonderful way to start my Monday. Thank you!
Happy to hear that – almost worth the odd nude statue, maybe….
I’m not sure I’m understanding what the issues are here – though glad you’re bringing it up to chat about. Are you feeling as if it objectifies women? Surely it objectifies men then too? Probably more so because of shrinkage in a cold sculptor’s studio. 🙂 I consider the human body – flesh, sinew, curve – the machine of it all if you will – a work of art, worthy of portrayal. The Greeks and Romans felt similarly, and many of these gardens are trying to evoke that spirit, or perhaps add a modern flavor. If the statue is obviously sexually explicit, that’s a different thing entirely, and I’ve certainly seen a few in gardens. But the human form in a high quality bronze or marble, with all its bits, I’m okay with. It’s just placing it successfully in the landscape. Not something I’ll ever do here however. For one I would NEVER be able to afford that kind of quality or age. Nothing worse than reproduction statuary (that still aren’t that cheap). Secondly, it just wouldn’t fit in my garden. -MW
I’m just telling you what I feel. This is not an intellectual issue for me, it’s a gut feeling. Enough with the nudes.
Fair enough. – MW
https://www.groundsforsculpture.org/artwork/nude-descending-the-stare-case/
Powerful!
Quite the rant. Almost all garden statuary is appealing but a gardener should notice when it becomes too crowded with stuff. I also agree with M W.
Well, you can disagree with a thought but not much point disagreeing with a feeling?
People are entitled to dislike what they dislike, and it so happens I agree with you. I don’t like human sculptures in gardens at all, and I especially dislike “sexy” sculptures, and I triple dislike sculptures of children. So many of us have spent our lives being pressured into looking/behaving for the gaze for others… gardening is my respite from that. Can’t we have a place where we’re allowed to just look normal and not be so damn performative, and not be reminded of our “failings” as women? As for child sculptures, I just think they’re deeply creepy.
I don’t have the same feelings about fine art – there are plenty of nudes that are beautiful and don’t have the tacky male-gaze feelings to them. Egon Schiele is one of my favorites, because he somehow manages to depict genuine sensuality. I still dislike paintings of children though, haha.
On top of all that, I just think 99% of figural garden sculptures are tacky. I think every single one you posted is very tacky – not because of the nudity, but because it’s just distracting ornamentation, like an awkward mashup of garden and gallery. The sculpture is rarely as lovely as the garden, and just takes away from it – I’m sure because most garden sculpture is on the lower end. Once in a while I see one of an animal that is OK.
Abstract ones have a much higher success rate in my eyes, and once in a while actually add to the garden. Yoko Kubrick’s current exhibition is such an example. https://filoli.org/events/yoko-kubrick/
Thanks for this – and yes, painting is quite a different thing. Come to think of it, what sculpture works in a garden and why is a whole new thing and worth thinking/writing about. Watch this space….
Agree with Marianne completely. David by Michaelangelo? Yea. Maybe in a quiet grove.
Each to her own!