Art Melt removes nude art before Friday opening

A black-and-white portrait of a nude woman was one of many pieces accepted into the Art Melt this year. But a few hours before the art show began Friday evening, Forum 35 volunteers removed the photograph and had the artist escorted from the entire downtown block cordoned off for Art Melt festivities.

Kenneth Wilks’ Real People #3 featured two photo prints—one showed a clothed woman and the second showed the same woman, nude. The piece was on display for the Thursday night preview party.

“They had a school group come in Friday morning, and there was concern about that picture,” Forum 35 President Erin Monroe Wesley says. “The Art Melt chairs spoke with Susan Brunner (of Brunner Gallery inside the Shaw Center, home of the Art Melt) and made the decision to remove the art.”

Wilks says that Art Melt co-chair Christen Losey-Gregg informed him that part of the photo was taken down because it was a nude. Wilks stood near the clothed photo, holding a sign that read, “I am being censored. Ask how!!” Wilks says that 10 minutes later Losey-Gregg had Baton Rouge Police officers escort him out of the gallery, and off the entire downtown block where the Art Melt festivities took place.

“It’s hypocritical at best,” says Wilks, who didn’t see any rules about not entering nudes into the juried show. “A group that claims to be progressive and support the arts and artists in Baton Rouge has ignored the advice of the professional artists they hired and censored a participating artist.”

Wilks took his sign across the street from the Shaw Center on North Street in front of the Old State Capitol, and spent the rest of the evening trying to catch the attention of passer-bys, including Mayor Kip Holden.

“I can’t exert pressure upon the people who made this decision, but there should be a clear set of rules. Now this young man’s work that has been accepted and was shown last night has to be taken down,” Holden said Friday night while shaking hands with people streaming into the Shaw Center. “Frankly, any time you get to a point that you don’t want to listen, you’ve committed a fatal error in life. I wanted to hear what he had to say.”

While at the Art Melt, Losey-Gregg said part of the piece “may not be there,” then said the piece was not removed from the show. The piece is now back on the walls of Brunner Gallery, and will hang there through July 20.