Simply because of the sheer ridiculousness of this news story, and how it made me laugh (nervously, while pulling at my hair and growing increasingly wild-eyed), I’m posting this image on my blog today.
Unredacted.
Uncensored.
Boobular.
Don’t you dare cover your eyes.
Pablo Picasso, ‘Women of Algiers’, 1955.
Image sourced: pablopicasso.org
The most expensive painting ever sold at auction, as of this week? Amazing. I love Picasso’s work, and if I had one hundred and whatever million dollars to spend on art, I’d probably spend it on something like this too, breasts and all. The very idea that someone would blur out pieces of a masterwork because they’re deemed ‘offensive’ just… offends me. Particularly when they’re representative of parts of a woman’s body, which means they’re close to my own personal heart – in more ways than one.
Unless, of course, the whole thing has been a symphony of genius on the part of Fox News (as unlikely as that sounds), who simply wanted to stir up controversy and keep themselves relevant. Maybe. I think that’s what I’ll hope for, because it’s preferable to thinking that sixty-year-old painted breasts on a Cubist representation of a woman are too offensive to be shown on a TV screen. It’s not just me who thinks this is utterly bonkers, right? I’m not the weird one here?
Actually, you know what – I think I’ll go and set up an island Utopia somewhere. Freedom, tolerance, acceptance, peace, and free cocktails on Fridays. Who’s with me?
SJ O'Hart 
As the inimitable Picasso once said, “If you can imagine it then it is real”.
The world seems to be going backwards rather than forwards. Imagine.
That’s a scary thought. Let’s hope there are enough people with sense and compassion to keep us from tipping over into the abyss altogether!
I think Picasso would just be really happy he’s got the world record (for now anyway) – his work was always controversial and ground-breaking so as long as it’s making news long after he’s gone it assures his lasting fame and status. Let’s face it – supernova star painters are a very rare breed indeed and he was arguably the first to have ‘made it’ in his own lifetime and to make a fortune from it while he was young enough to really enjoy it – he’d have lapped up the notoriety regardless, like the showman he was! 😉
Well, yes. That’s true. And I’m sure Fox News are singing the ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’ song, too! It’s just, I wonder what’s so unutterably terrifying about oilpaint bosoms. Sometimes I really worry the world is going down all the wrong roads, all at once! 🙂
It’s probably the Middle America card I expect – they’ve no trouble with justifying 200+ year old gun laws when toddlers are killing people, but the sight of a bare breast (or three as we’re talking cubism 😉 ) sends them all into a complete flap. I used to be bewildered about their attitude to the human body until I finally realised that,for TV purposes, ‘naked’ means being in full underwear (with a vest for the blokes)… I guess the Pilgrim Fathers are still alive and kicking over there when it comes to public lewdness! 😀
It is one of the stranger aspects of our modern world, right enough!
Free cocktails and unlimited breasts – sign me up for that.
I’d love to have sen that money spent on something else, though – community arts would fit this one.
Welll…. I’m not entirely sure about the unlimited breasts. That would have to be a private arrangement! 😀 But cocktails, yes. All the cocktails. And I see what you mean about community arts, though to be honest I have no problem with great art selling for huge money. It’s a world I’ll never be part of, so I can just watch in awe! It would be fantastic if a generous patron felt like spending a hundred million dollars on community art projects too, of course. We’ll all have to work on becoming multi-millionaires, and then we can take care of that!