Nude Brooke Shields Exhibit Prompts Backlash

A photo exhibit featuring images of a young Brooke Shields nude has sparked a cultural and political backlash. Lots of stories in the news. See, "Exhibit Featuring Nude Photo of 10-year-Old Brooke Shields Sparks Outrage." (Via Memeorandum.)

Plus, the Daily Mail, "Tate Removes Nude Picture of 10-Year-Old Brooke Shields After Police Pornography Probe." And from London's Telegraph, "Tate Modern's Brooke Shields Photograph: A Crass Lack of Morals in Mink-Coated Reagan Years":

Whenever the Metropolitan Police force is called to an art gallery to defend our morals, you can be sure that the work they don't want the public to see will be one of the most important in the show.

Tate Modern's Pop Life is a fascinating show, but one of the most interesting works in it is the American artist Richard Prince's 1983 work Spiritual America.

It takes the form of a ready-made or found object – a publicity photograph showing the prepubescent actress Brooke Shields naked, her body wet from the bath. What's more, her hair has been elaborately done and she is wearing so much lipstick, mascara and eye shadow that it looks as though the head of a 25-year-old Playmate had been spliced on the body of a child. The original photo was commissioned with the approval of the child's mother who, as her manager, allowed it to be published in the soft porn magazine Sugar n' Spice as a tactic to get her daughter noticed and so further her career.

The Telegraph features a partial shot of controversial image. The full photograph is here, The Saatchi Gallery: London Contemporary Art Gallery.

Above Image Credit: Denver Post.