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SOUTHERN VOICE • DECEMBER 29/1994
New design For a new gear
Christmas in South Carolina—just as I remem-
design and home furnishings is moving us triicfesjgf
awareness that makes even the smallest budget seem
verv stylish. From Pier 1 to Beverly Hall—and all the
to dress even the simplest of decor.
you put them? I would suggest that if it's son
is the perfect place for that frame or what-not.
bedroom does
ogy of sleep—
for example,
reach to turn
this is the last
room you see;
as morning
comes, it’s the
first room you
see. Subcon
sciously, the
rics and color
of the room can
sometimes
govern a good
night's sleep.
Plate favorite objects on a bedside
table, where you can enjoy them
morning and night.
So as you reach for the light, sur
things that make you feel good.
Dressing the bed with the rig
important, and now with the a’
mades, the choices are unlimited. Putting fabrics to
gether is made easy by good displays and A-B-C shop
ping. But use your creative thoughts by putting to
gether your own combinations. For example, your
Ralph Lauren spread with your Linens and Things
taupe flannel sheets, brought together with your cus
tom-made bed skirt, makes this bed a great retreat!
Bathroom do's and don'ts are always very black-
and-white to me. If the bathroom is small with no stor
age, then regardless of how great the display is at
>- Continued on page 42
Reversing the roles
by MICHAEL KAPE
Artist Robert Sherer angers
sexists—and incites censors—
with his pointings of mole nudes
in classically female poses
What is it about Robert Sherer's paintings that has so
many people upset? How is it that in just a few short years
this openly gay artist has found himself in three censorship
flaps, most recently earlier this month at an exhibition in
Birmingham, Ala.?
Robert Sherer paints nudes. Male nudes—in poses tra
ditionally reserved for women. And he does it very well.
Perhaps a lesser artist, one who did not appropriate the style
and tone of the old masters, might not evoke such response.
Yet because his brilliantly executed paintings arouse an
emotional wallop, they manage to provoke controversy.
In 1990, at an exhibition of five artists at Cleveland's
Lake Erie College, the gallery director called Sherer a week
after his paintings went up and asked if he could cover one
up for a day. "He thought one of my paintings was offen
sive," recalls Sherer. "A group of children was coming that
day, so would I mind if this one painting was covered up? I
was very naive to all this censorship stuff at the time. I
agreed. I said, 'No problem. You can cover it up. It's only
going to be for an afternoon.'
"Then he calls me the next day," Sherer continues, "and
tells me he has decided he's going to take down all of my
works. And I said, 'What do you mean take down?' And he
said, 'I've already done it. I've taken your works off the wall
and put them in the basement I don't care what you think.
I'm doing the right thing because your work is offensive.'"
Sherer says that what angered him most about the inci
dent was that the other four artists in the show took no stand
on the censorship. "None of them defended me," Sherer
says. "They were heterosexual, and basically had the atti
tude of, 'Well, you were asking for it because you painted
male nudes. If you had painted female nudes like we've all
done, you could get away with it.' Then, a week later, the
guy doing the censoring got a bit braver. He censored one
of the other paintings as offensive. Then, all of a sudden,
the heterosexuals were saying, 'Oh my God! Oh, censor
ship is bad!' And they all jumped on the censorship band
wagon. But they were unwilling to do it for me."
In 1992, at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, Sherer
and his fellow graduate students were given an opportu
nity to mail out a postcard announcing the exhibition of
their work. Only Sherer wasn't allowed to mail his out on
campus because a liberal arts dean thought the painting on
the card—two nude men, one asleep on a bed and the other
sitting in a chair—was offensive. A brouhaha ensued, even
tually bringing in the ACLU.
"The images I saw on the cards that came out before
mine were invariably sexist poses," Sherer says. "One in
particular was of a nude woman lying down, her legs spread
in a very unbecoming position, and a pack of wild dogs
were sniffing and licking her body—and [the university]
saw no problem with that image! But just because there's a
little, tiny weenie that you can see in my painting, it was
enough to cause the trouble."
On Dec. 2,1994, Sherer was again censored, this time at
his first exhibit ever in his home state of Alabama. At Gal
lery 2030 in Birmingham, 10 of Sherer's works were on dis
play. But his paintings were deemed inappropriate to be
seen at a fundraiser being held on behalf of A Baby's Place,
a foster care service for children with HIV. Glenda Harris,
who works with A Baby's Place, covered the works because
she did not want to "offend people who give kids with HIV
money and medicine."
"Yeah, like who gives the money?" retorts Sherer.
>*- Continued on page 40
BILL TOMEY