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That’s why we’ve developed financial planning to meet the specific needs of both traditional and non-traditional families. Call today for a free introductory consultation. IDS Financial Services Inc. Margaret Graff and Ron Powell, Personal Financial Planners (404) 876-0132, fax 876-0152 117 5th Street, NE, AUanta, GA 30308 © 1993 IDS Financial Corporation. Reversing the roles >- Continued from page 27 "Where does the majority of their money come from?" All 10 of Sherer's works in the Birming ham show were censored, including one that, he says, "when you look at it, you will not be able to understand why it got cen sored... It's inside of a natural history mu seum. It's a woman holding a camera, pho tographing inside one of those dioramas. There's a scene in the background. Way off in the bushes you can see that there's a man back in there. All you see is a comer of his shoulder and his neck and head. You don't see anything else. The idea behind that painting was it is the reversal of what's hap pened in art history—men have always been depicted as being identified with culture, with technology; women have always been identified with nature. All I did was flip that. The woman was erect, in control of the tech nology. She represented culture and ad vancement." Sherer finds ironic amusement at hav ing his work now censored even by women. "I am very well versed in feminist politics," Sherer says. "I know what constitutes sex ism. That's what my work is all about. Her censoring my work and the way she did it— it is the finest example of my thesis I've had so far. She's on my side and doesn't even know it!" Sherer's thesis is that throughout art history, there has always been a sexist ap proach to nudes. Females are, males are not. Or if they are, they are the idealized figures. His radical approach evolved when all his early ideals of what constitutes art and art history were crushed. "I began to notice, as I carefully studied art history, that women have very valid complaints," Sherer says. "Art history has treated them wrongly. It had never really dawned on me to discover how men had been mistreated. I assumed that since art had been controlled by the patriarchy, that men would not be mistreated at all. I was very, very wrong. Men have been treated horribly by men, especially by Christianity. The mere fact that 97 percent of all the male nudes throughout the entire history of art are of the Baby Jesus. That offends me deeply." Sherer believes historical depictions of men in art are so unrealistic that "we can't possibly live up to that ideal. Ultimately it hurts all of us. "If you have a big art history book at your house, one that covers the whole his tory of art, flip through it and count the times, for instance, you even find an image of a man with chest hair," Sherer says. "Name one. You can't. There actually were a few—very few—paintings of men with chest hair, but they were paintings of satyrs, which was the high culture's put-down of all it considered gross and animalistic. Men are hairy. Men do not always stand around with swords in their hands, being erect. Men lie down. There are no paintings about men being comfortable." Borrowing from an early 19th century style ("we call it appropriation—it's a eu phemism for the historical rip-off I'm do ing"), Sherer has turned art history on its ear, simply by substituting men for women (and vice versa). That constitutes the thrust of his next major effort. "I'm doing an experiment right now here in Atlanta with Sheila Ray," Sherer noted. "She's a wonderful person. She's pretty popular in the gay community. She's a lesbian and an actress and a professional artist model. We're taking some standard ized poses from art history—something as simple as an erect figure standing behind a prostrate figure. We're trying these differ ent poses to find out, in what way, if we re verse the gender, is it sexist?" First, of course, Sherer is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his ten paintings back from Birmingham. Their next stop, he hopes, is an exhibition at the Lowe Gallery, where he serves as director. "We want to put it up here, just as it was, and see what the reaction in Atlanta would be." One thing is for sure, he can't censor himself. "Yeah," Sherer jokes, "but I guess by 1996 I'm not going to feel good if I'm not in a murk again."