-
One of Andy Golub's models on a subway platform.
Being naked in public is a crime, right? Well, not always (unless you're in Berkeley). Which is to say, sometimes it can be a crime (if you're in San Francisco), but you probably won't get arrested. Then again, sometimes it clearly isn't a crime (if you're in New York), but you get arrested nonetheless.
What are we talking about? A New York City artist named Andy Golub, and how his recent run-ins with the NYPD further illustrate the complexities of public nudity, free expression, what the law is, and how it's applied. California law prohibits public nudity when it offends someone, but cops in San Francisco have a hard time enforcing it. New York's law, we're told, allows public nudity for artistic expression, but at least one member of the NYPD seems to have intentionally overlooked that.
Let us explain.
Golub paints naked people. He doesn't paint pictures of naked people, rather, he applies paint to the bodies of people wearing no clothes. And his work is stunning.
Doing this in public is part of Golub's process. He says he likes working with models because it's more interactive and unpredictable than, say, painting on an object or canvas. He says he never knows what he'll paint when he starts, but he has learned to let each model's personality and energy help determine the outcome.
"It's a really an amazing experience," Golub says.
Painting people in public lets anyone watch the joint creation being made, and it's a more direct way to show his work than, say, photographs in a gallery.
He adds -- without a hint of smugness or irony -- "I've always been into public art."
Golub has a lawyer named Ron Kuby, who specializes in civil rights cases and criminal defense. Kuby says that although laws regarding public nudity vary by state and municipality, New York's statute is clear: Public nudity is allowed when it involves performances or acts related to artistic expression. He says municipalities can pass their own laws forbidding all public nudity, but New York City has not.
"We still like to fancy ourselves as the creative capital of the planet," Kuby says.
Regardless, Golub and his models have been arrested twice this year near Times Square. The first was a case of two young officers not knowing the law, and Kuby is still working to have those arrests voided. To head off future arrests, he said a memo was circulated throughout city police channels specifying that Golub and the models were acting within the law.
It seems to be the tiniest piece of clothing that led to the second arrest. Golub says until recently his models wore g-strings, but in August he and the models decided to go without. Golub said the first time that happened, "there was a real strange quiet, almost like the calm before the storm. But we just kept painting, and everything was fine."
Nonetheless, it apparently was too much for one person.
That person was a certain sergeant at a nearby precinct. The sergeant -- who Kuby says had confronted Golub before, when the artist was working outside a toy store -- had officers arrest the model. The model was released without being charged, and now Kuby says he's looking into pursuing a civil rights case against the sergeant, who Kuby believes let his personal beliefs override his duty to the law.
"He can raise his children any way he wants," says Kuby. "He just can't raise New York's children any way he wants."
Adds Golub, "I think it teaches us how much we've been inundated with shame about the body."
Asked about the public's reaction to his work, Golub says that most people are either fascinated by it, or they don't think much about it and walk on by. Only very occasionally does someone say out loud that it's disgraceful or disgusting.
Now let's contrast Golub's situation with recent goings-on in San Francisco. As described by Lauren Smiley in a December 2010 feature story called Overexposed, men in the Castro have been walking around -- and lounging, and reading, and shopping, and going out to eat -- with no clothes on. They do this for no artistic purpose, and in San Francisco, that's legal -- unless someone complains.
To make an arrest, a police officer must have the offended person sign his or her name to an official complaint, which not many people are willing to do in the Castro. It's a subtle, uneasy battle over "the Castro as Epicenter of Gay America" vs. "the Castro as Just Like Everywhere Else." (We believe some of the assimilationists should read Michael Warner's The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life or Daniel Harris' The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture.)
The result is cops approaching these men in the buff, advising them that so-and-so over there is thinking about signing a complaint against them, and if that happens, then, well, We're going to have to bring you in.
Supervisor Scott Wiener is pushing a local law that would require nudists to at least cover their private parts and put something between their keisters and seating when they dine out.
We wonder whether latex paint would count?
Art / Commentary / Public Art / Queer / Sex and Sexuality Public Nudity: It's Different in New York City (Sort of)
Posted on Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Being naked in public is a crime, right? Well, not always (unless you're in Berkeley). Which is to say, sometimes it can be a crime (if you're in San Francisco), but you probably won't get arrested. Then again, sometimes it clearly isn't a crime (if you're in New York), but you get arrested nonetheless.
What are we talking about? A New York City artist named Andy Golub, and how his recent run-ins with the NYPD further illustrate the complexities of public nudity, free expression, what the law is, and how it's applied. California law prohibits public nudity when it offends someone, but cops in San Francisco have a hard time enforcing it. New York's law, we're told, allows public nudity for artistic expression, but at least one member of the NYPD seems to have intentionally overlooked that.
Let us explain.
Golub paints naked people. He doesn't paint pictures of naked people, rather, he applies paint to the bodies of people wearing no clothes. And his work is stunning.
Doing this in public is part of Golub's process. He says he likes working with models because it's more interactive and unpredictable than, say, painting on an object or canvas. He says he never knows what he'll paint when he starts, but he has learned to let each model's personality and energy help determine the outcome.
"It's a really an amazing experience," Golub says.
Painting people in public lets anyone watch the joint creation being made, and it's a more direct way to show his work than, say, photographs in a gallery.
He adds -- without a hint of smugness or irony -- "I've always been into public art."
Golub has a lawyer named Ron Kuby, who specializes in civil rights cases and criminal defense. Kuby says that although laws regarding public nudity vary by state and municipality, New York's statute is clear: Public nudity is allowed when it involves performances or acts related to artistic expression. He says municipalities can pass their own laws forbidding all public nudity, but New York City has not.
"We still like to fancy ourselves as the creative capital of the planet," Kuby says.
Regardless, Golub and his models have been arrested twice this year near Times Square. The first was a case of two young officers not knowing the law, and Kuby is still working to have those arrests voided. To head off future arrests, he said a memo was circulated throughout city police channels specifying that Golub and the models were acting within the law.
It seems to be the tiniest piece of clothing that led to the second arrest. Golub says until recently his models wore g-strings, but in August he and the models decided to go without. Golub said the first time that happened, "there was a real strange quiet, almost like the calm before the storm. But we just kept painting, and everything was fine."
Nonetheless, it apparently was too much for one person.
That person was a certain sergeant at a nearby precinct. The sergeant -- who Kuby says had confronted Golub before, when the artist was working outside a toy store -- had officers arrest the model. The model was released without being charged, and now Kuby says he's looking into pursuing a civil rights case against the sergeant, who Kuby believes let his personal beliefs override his duty to the law.
"He can raise his children any way he wants," says Kuby. "He just can't raise New York's children any way he wants."
Adds Golub, "I think it teaches us how much we've been inundated with shame about the body."
Asked about the public's reaction to his work, Golub says that most people are either fascinated by it, or they don't think much about it and walk on by. Only very occasionally does someone say out loud that it's disgraceful or disgusting.
Now let's contrast Golub's situation with recent goings-on in San Francisco. As described by Lauren Smiley in a December 2010 feature story called Overexposed, men in the Castro have been walking around -- and lounging, and reading, and shopping, and going out to eat -- with no clothes on. They do this for no artistic purpose, and in San Francisco, that's legal -- unless someone complains.
To make an arrest, a police officer must have the offended person sign his or her name to an official complaint, which not many people are willing to do in the Castro. It's a subtle, uneasy battle over "the Castro as Epicenter of Gay America" vs. "the Castro as Just Like Everywhere Else." (We believe some of the assimilationists should read Michael Warner's The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life or Daniel Harris' The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture.)
The result is cops approaching these men in the buff, advising them that so-and-so over there is thinking about signing a complaint against them, and if that happens, then, well, We're going to have to bring you in.
Supervisor Scott Wiener is pushing a local law that would require nudists to at least cover their private parts and put something between their keisters and seating when they dine out.
We wonder whether latex paint would count?
Tags: art, law, nudism, nudity, public art, queer, sex and sexuality, Image