Tuesday, December 16, 2008
One picket line we would not cross
I think more Americans would be socialist if our labor actions were like this:
From Rodin and Courbet's naked muses and lovers to Degas's clinical study of the female form, the nude has always taken pride of place in French art.
But Paris is now being accused of showing such philistine ingratitude to its life models that scores went on strike yesterday, taking to the streets to pose naked in freezing temperatures to shame the state.
In front of the tastefully decorated Christmas trees outside Paris city hall's culture department, the naked and goose-pimpled models demanded a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft as they held trade union banners in the pose of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People.
It is hard to choose the absolutely best line in this story. It might be this one:
The disrespect shown to the models was "proof that something is badly wrong with French society", shouted one shivering male model through a megaphone.
Quel horreur!
Or maybe it is this one:
Artists, students and art teachers sat sketching them in support.
The next time your local teachers go out on strike, try sketching them in a gesture of support and see how they react.
Or, it might be this one:
The row began when Paris city hall, which runs an array of life-drawing classes, banned the tradition of the "cornet", a piece of art paper rolled into a cone and passed round for tips as a model gets dressed after class.
City hall runs "life-drawing" classes?
And then there is the bureaucratic reaction, which is quite game:
Christophe Girard, Paris city hall's culture supremo, who also moonlighted as a life model in his student days, tried to calm the row, urging the ministry of culture to review life models' status. He said: "Regarding tips, we can't let people collect money that's not taxed while working in a state building.
"But I think this was a lovely protest in the French, gaulois spirit of resistance - taking your clothes off outside 10 days before Christmas shows real conviction."
Oh, so this is really about the state getting its cut. Now it makes sense!
2 Comments:
By 
Georg Felis, at
Wed Dec 17, 11:53:00 AM:
"Tax Increases for Nude French Models Get Sketchy Support" Film at 11.
By Eric, at
Sun Dec 21, 11:33:00 AM:
This post was useless without pics.
