Imperfection is beauty

But we're also not gonna fuck with 'em, we're not idiots

Gordon Appelbe Smith Special Green 1967 - 1968 Screenprint on paper 38.1 x 51.1 cm

Of course, some artists didn't care about their art meeting these standards. Pieces painted for a private owner, such as Goya's "Nude Maja," for instance. Or intentionally shocking pieces, like Courbet's "Origin of the World." But even artists who intended to toe the line could find their art deemed not up to par. John Everett Millais' painting "The Knight Errant" depicts an armored knight freeing a naked woman who has been tied to a tree. Her head is modestly turned away from the viewer, her body is hairless, even her loose coiffure trails down to veil her crotch, all of which were means of establishing an acceptably "artistic," modest, remove from reality. But it still caused titters, because Millais was a Pre-Raphaelite, a circle of artists who were rejecting Neo-classical modes and studio staidness in favor of overt naturalism, and applied that naturalism to much of his depiction of the woman in "Knight Errant"— she was recognizably human, even individual, not the safely sylph-like airbrushed ideal removed from humanity and sex, and enough so that even with his bows to academic mores, a lot of people still considered it at least borderline distasteful. (And it wasn't just nudity that was expected to keep an idealized remove from reality in order to be respectable, nor was this the only painting of Millais' that got the side-eye, his depictions of the Holy Family in a warts-and-all, natural, domestically-messy style also caused controversy because it wasn't refined or respectful enough!) This struggle between artistic realism, edification, and "vulgar reality" was a constant (and notably was one of the criticisms that was leveled at the naturalism of the Impressionists as well), and bald pussy has been one of the elements at the center of the debate for a long time.

Three Graces, a beautiful tribute to indigenous women, by Canadian First Nations artist Kent Monkman … www.kentmonkman.com

Anna Christie is a film adaptation of a play by Eugene O'Neill. The film stars Greta Garbo, a renowned bisexual Swedish film actress known for her work during the silent and early sound eras. We've written about Garbo's work in Queen Christina, but Anna Christie was her first "talkie". Garbo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work as the titular Anna Christie. Anna Christie was also a pre-code film — it was released shortly before the Motion Picture Production Code was established. The Motion Picture Production Code, better known as the Hays Code, was a set of censorship guidelines applied to most motion pictures in the US between 1934 and 1968. The Hays Code is in reference to William Harrison Hays Sr., president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) during the introduction of the code. It was under Hays' leadership that the code was adopted in 1930, but its enforcement became evident in 1934. The code banned "immoral acts" from being shown on film, one of which was any reference to or implication of homosexuality — especially queer people getting a happy ending. Because Anna Christie is a romance, it's very interesting to see something like this released during an era where many acts and implications of love were censored. This is less an endorsement of the film, which is certainly of its time, and more an opportunity to watch and reflect on the harms and implications of censorship, especially in art. You can watch this film and check out more works in our gallery!

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(also check out svechnikov of the carolina hurricanes in the sin bin!)

holy shit

Kawanabe Kyosai, White Heron in the Rain, colour woodblock print, Japan, 1880

obsessed with the idea that robby slapped him on the wound basically to say bitch i know about that