New York Times Censors Art Ads
In my inbox today, amidst all of the wonderful updates, vi-agra, f-r-e-e, offers was one from the New York Times Online. Seems their online art section is not interested in banners paying homage to great works of art influenced from before modern censorship.
At issue:
In only 2 places in the world, Alexandre Cabanel has a painting created for Napoleon III. The painting, The Birth of Venus, 1863, is a beautiful, albeit, larger woman resting above the ocean waves. Above are 5 angels or “munchkins” with wings. The painting is so striking that, so the story goes, an American corporate leader of the day commissioned Cabanel to paint another. Today one rests in Paris’ Musée d’Orsay and the other is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York City.
Howard Schatz, upon a visit to Paris, whose love is anything to do with water, simply was in awe as he gazed upon it in person. His homage to Cabanel’s beauty is similarly titled but uniquely his. The Italian model and the regarded, world class dancer worked tirelessly with Howard to create his vision of The Birth of Venus (featured in the new release of H2O and as a signed, limited edition cibachrome photograph from GALLERY M).
The New York Times, through their affiliation with Google Ad Sense, banned GALLERY M’s display ad upon the grounds of:
AD TEXT:
Birth of Venus by Schatz
www.gallerym.comAd Status: Suspended – Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Image/Video Content ~~~~~~~~~———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:Unacceptable Image/Video Content: Currently, we do not allow image or video ads containing adult content. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
So the question is: Should fine art be banned from online public display when nudity is involved? Is today’s world so uncomfortable online with itself that citizens/netizens remain ashamed of naked beauty, even though Google serves up hard core porn by the minutes and gets paid to do it? Do you search the net with “safe search always on?” How about in Chinese?
