Henson Porn Debate Goes International – artmarketblog.com

Henson Porn Debate Goes International – artmarketblog.com

A year ago I wrote a post on the controversy surrounding world renowned Australian photographer Bill Henson whose use of images of naked adolescent boys and girls made headlines when a selection of his works were confiscated by police.(see original post here)
The response to my post on Henson was quite heated which I hope will continue now that new information has come to light.

Since I wrote that post there has been continued controversy surrounding Henson’s work the most recent of which involved the revelation that the artist had been allowed to tour the premises of a school to search for potential adolescent subjects for his photos. (see here:
http://news.theage.com.au/national/henson-scouted-school-for-child-models-20081004-4tnh.html)
There has been an understandably strong reaction to this news which, although shocking, has not seemed to have had a negative effect on the popularity of Henson’s work.

The debate regarding Henson’s actions has gone international with the artist’s first show since the one in Sydney that was shut shut down by Police currently being held (until the 15th of November) at Robert Miller Gallery which can be found at 524 West 26th Street New York City. (see here:
http://www.robertmillergallery.com/exhibitions/current/imags.html)
According to the exhibition press release “Bill Henson’s photographs, first exhibited at Robert Miller in 2004, revealed the artist as a passionate and visionary explorer of twilight zones and dichotomies including nature and civilisation, youth and adulthood, and male and female. These beautiful and mysterious images are charachterised by chiaroscuro, translucent skin tones, and jewel-like colours that add an ethereal quality to ambiguous settings” Although the work of Henson has not created as much of a furore in New York as yet there has been plenty of media attention surrounding the show which should ensure that plenty of New Yorkers have all the information they need to form an opinion. (see here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24513728-16947,00.html)

Let me know your thoughts regarding the latest Bill Henson developments.

Original post on Bill Henson:

http://artmarketblog.com/2007/10/31/when-pornography-is-pornography-and-not-fine-art/

image:

Bill Henson
Untitled, 2005-2006
Type “C” colour photograph, ed. 5
127×177.8cm
Part of Robert Miller Gallery’s Bill Henson Show

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.