A Photography Show about Nudity at The MET Museum

The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's great art museums.  Its collection contains about 3 million pieces of art.

Here is an article about a show they had there last year. I found the article by chance and thought I would post it, even though it is old.

The MET museum was created as a result of New York City's "golden age," between 1865 and 1914, when New York City established itself as the banking and business capitol of the world.  It became a tradition for wealthy New Yorkers to donate money to public causes/charities and many donated their art collections to the MET after they died. J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller...they all donated to the MET.

There's just one problem with the MET.  It has always had the reputation of being too conservative.  In fact, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) and The Whitney Museum of American Art were established in New York City because the MET, at one time, refused to show 20th century or American art.

It has also been argued that the MET is "sexist" or reflects "sexist" values in the art world.  Nearly all of the art displayed at the MET was created by men.  Indeed, "white" men.

The following article from a small New York newspaper takes a look at an exhibit, at the MET, of photography dealing with the naked body.  This article points out that most photographers in the exhibit are male and most models are female.  The article begins with a reference to a quote from a feminist art organization called The Guerrilla Girls, who once said that a woman can only get into an art museum if she is naked.  Of course, they meant that women are only valued in art museums as the sexual subjects of male artists; but not as artists themselves.

This is a great article!

http://nypress.com/skin-storm/