diane coates :: blog
News & Nude controversy!

DiamondAt last – my new website is up and running! I’m really delighted to be able to exhibit my newest work and keep the exhibition schedule up to date after so long.

 

Life has been manically busy in the last few weeks with local exhibitions, my work being in Sotheby’s Garden Sculpture Auction, running the sculpture school Portrait workshop at the weekend of 21st/22nd May, and to-ing and fro-ing up to Limehouse to the Bronze Age Foundry (oh - the traffic!) to sort out my bronze cast commission ‘Diamond’.

 

DiamondI am absolutely delighted with the patina that Bronze Age created on ‘Diamond’ – a beautiful, rich, light chestnut colour that seemed to make her glow! My clients collected her yesterday and they were thrilled with the results; they had not imagined in their wildest dreams that casting their commissioned sculpture in bronze, rather than bronze resin, would result in such a stunning piece.

 

Naughty AngelMy sculpture of ‘The Naughty Angel’ is still in the casting process – it is taking ages! For the first time in years I am doing the moulding and casting of her amazing wings, and I couldn’t have chosen a more difficult one to do if I tried! It was partly a case of necessity, as Dillon and Laura (Ridgeway Moulding and Casting) are incredibly busy, and also because I need to know as we are running a Moulding course at the sculpture school in July.

 

My life-size sculpture ‘Presence (of Mind)’ was recently the subject of controversy when she was installed at an exhibition in Surrey. Complaints were made to the organisers that it was obscene! What is it that makes certain members of the public cry outrage at the sight of female nudity? Bizarrely, this sculpture has a blank shape where her genitals should be, precisely because of public (pubic!) sensitivity! Naughty AngelYet some people still managed to find it offensive…….is this really the 21st century or have we returned to the age of Victorian prudity? I find it incredible that the female form should be censored in this way – how come it is ok in art to display male figures with priapic genitals, but not the naked female figure?

 

Why do exhibition curators feel the need to acquiesce to the small minority – and really, why did I make a fig leaf to cover the offending area?! It looked ridiculous!! And shouted ‘HELLOOO – LOOK AT ME!’  The fig-leaf didn’t stay in place for more than a few days though – ultimately I felt it was compromising the artistic integrity of the sculpture just a little too much.

 

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