Earlier I was browsing a few art books I had from years back and actually analyzing the abstracts.  One piece definitely stood out because it had people’s faces painted all over the canvas.  Right before flipping the page I spotted round, circular breasts-looking things and in that split second I thought “wait…I thought it was supposed to be a painting about people’s faces?”

I observed the painting carefully and was surprised that I hadn’t spotted it 5 years ago when I bought the book: it was a picture depicting cunnilingus…with a miniature cut-out of Prince Charles standing right between the breasts of the slightly overweight woman in the picture.  But it’s not the painting that surprised me, but the painter: the current Head of the Art & Design department.

Back when I was doing my A level in Art & Design, we spent a semester painting the human body.  The teacher wanted us to “master” proportion and skin tone.  Most of us were reluctant to draw naked bodies so we would always draw e.g. a woman with her back facing front or a guy’s upper half.  The teacher even joked about it, when we all displayed the works during discussions.  He asked “don’t these people in the paintings like me? Because they’re all facing away from me…”. We were all just trying to keep the works decent.

One guy decided to be a little courageous however when he submitted a work depicting a woman bathing in a pond.  She was naked and her upper half was showing…except she didn’t have any nipples.  Up until today I’m still uncertain whether the guy meant to leave the nipples out or whether he actually forgot to draw them on.  But I’m guessing he left them out on purpose because he didn’t want to seem like a pervert.

Fine Art in China is a little different however.  During my first year when my classmates were told to paint anything they wanted, some actually chose to paint pictures with breasts all over them.  A year later at the sculpting room, a good number of students sculpted characters with huge penises (larger than the actual character).

This is actually quite interesting to me because while I’ve always been reluctant to draw private parts on any of my works, many students are inspired to do so.  It’s almost as if they take advantage of the situation since it’s considered “art”.  But surely we wear clothes in public because exposing private parts is considered indecent? When is that fine line between art and pornography crossed?

It is believed that our art compositions tell us a lot about our subconscious.  So in a way, I actually do personally believe people who come up with stuff like that are a little perverted.  I am generally open-minded; drawing a naked picture of a person would – without a shadow of a doubt – be classed as art.  However, sculpting a small-sized man with a huge-ass penis will not make the observer think “wow…that’s a very small man”.  Similarly, drawing breasts of different sizes on a canvas isn’t going to make anyone think of baby milk.

And as for the Head of the Art & Design department’s cunnilingus artwork…I feel it is a form of art…a form of art called pornography.