Nan Goldin Photo Ruled 'Not Indecent'

I have been following this story for a while and it looks like more rational heads have finally prevailed. Some would say this type of event is good because it advances public discourse about acceptable community standards, but I never find police raids and confiscations to be an effective opening statement in any debate. My question is does ruling something 'not indecent' mean it is in fact decent?

Elton John's Seized Goldin Photo Is `Not Indecent,' BBC Reports
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Elton John's photograph of two girls by Nan Goldin, seized by police from an art exhibition last month, "is not an indecent image," the BBC said, citing the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service.

The photo, "Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing," was seized by Northumbria police from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, England, while on loan from the singer-songwriter. John said on his Web site that the work had been published around the world "without any objections of which we are aware" and auctioned twice by Sotheby's.

Goldin's 1998 picture, which had the title "Edda and Klara Belly-Dancing," sold for $3,000 in 2004 after failing to sell in 2002, Sotheby's said in an e-mail.

John, an art collector, owns thousands of photos by artists including Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams, according to his Web site. He bought Goldin's picture as part of the ``Thanksgiving'' series at London's White Cube gallery in 1999, he said.

Fascists Attack Andres Serrano Photos in Swedish Gallery

So sad that this is the state of public discourse. From the IHT:

A grainy video of four masked vandals running through an art gallery in Sweden, smashing sexually explicit photographs with crowbars and axes to the strain of thundering death-metal music, was posted on YouTube last week.

This was no joke or acting stunt. It was what actually happened on a quiet Friday afternoon in Lund, a small university town in southern Sweden where "The History of Sex," an exhibition of photographs by the New York artist Andres Serrano, had opened two weeks earlier.

I was debating whether or not to post a link to the video of the attack. I mean, why give these fascist fucks any extra exposure, right? But, I think it would be a mistake to hide from this video. It is important to expose this type of extremism for the bullshit it is.

Hysteria Wins, Thanksgiving is Over

Following the hysteria that lead police to confiscate a single Nan Goldin photo of two girls playing, Elton John has decided to pull the installation piece, Thanksgiving, from a Gateshead gallery. Here's the statement from the BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art's Web site:

BALTIC at the request of The Sir Elton John Photography Collection has closed the exhibition Thanksgiving by Nan Goldin.

After the removal of one image from the series it was no longer possible for BALTIC to exhibit the collection of works as the artist intended and therefore BALTIC is symaphetic to Sir Elton John's request and supportive of the decision.

AP has picked up the story here. The AP story includes the sentence, "police confirmed they were looking at the picture to assess whether an offense had been committed," which reminded me of the old joke about the community board that confiscated some alleged pornography and were forced to review the material over and over and over and over and over again before they ruled.

Nan Goldin "Art Porn" Update

Elton John issued a statement today confirming his ownership of the Nan Goldin photo seized by police.

The photograph entitled "Klara and Edda belly-dancing" (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the "Thanksgiving" installation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin.

The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world. It can be found in the monograph of Ms Goldin's works entitled "The Devil's Playground" (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.

In my mind the picture in question in not even close to being sexual in a Jock Sturges or Sally Mann kind of way. I guess people see the sexuality they want to see.

Nan Goldin "Art Porn" Seized by Police

© Nan Goldin

Not sure if the photo above is the "art porn" in question (and what exactly is "art porn?"), but here's the ridiculousness from today's Telegraph:

Seized 'art porn' owned by Sir Elton John
A photograph by a controversial American artist which is part of Sir Elton John's private collection has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws.

The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wide apart, was taken by the renowned photographer Nan Goldin.

The shot, from the artist's Thanksgiving series, was to be exhibited at the Baltic Modern Art gallery, Tyneside, this week along with some of her other work. But the day before it was due to be viewed by the public, police came and removed the image over fears that it might be breaking the law.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this same body of work was shown at White Cube in 2000.

UPDATE: The image above is not the seized image. I repeat, it's not the Nan Goldin photograph seized by police. See my later post for correct image.