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A Perth art school has denied claims it censored the paintings of two students, claiming one depicted a naked underage student and has to be removed for legal reasons.
An online petition to the John Curtin College of the Arts, launched by an anonymous account, calls on the school to “allow students to freely exhibit their artwork”.
It claims that a year 12 art student had the painting removed from a school exhibition “without any notice” and another was told hers would be turned around to face the wall during tours.
“Both artworks depicted some form of nudity and alluded to female sexuality,” said the petition on change.org.
“The students were told their work could “encourage the male gaze” and were too provocative and inappropriate to be exhibited at the college, which claims to be a school focused on the encouragement of creativity and expression.”
The exhibition has not yet begun and a spokesman for the department claims the petition is mistaken. He also denied students were told the work “encouraged the male gaze”.
The spokesman confirmed that one artwork would not be displayed because it depicted a naked friend of the artist and was of such high quality that the subject was immediately recognisable. The student pictured is underage.
John Curtin College of the Arts principal Mitch Mackay told Guardian Australia the college has previously exhibited work which depicted adult nudity, but that was created using professional life drawing models.
“This is certainly not an issue of art censorship, we simply cannot display images of a recognisable person who is naked and underage,” Mackay said.
“Both of these paintings are outstanding pieces of work by our students, but in both cases there are particular circumstances we have had to consider to ensure they do not put children at risk.”
The second picture allegedly shows two females kissing and will not be displayed when performances of Disney plays at the venue, which children are expected to attend.
Mackay said this was due to the “adult content”.
The works were submitted as part of the year 12 students’ general coursework, but it is not clear if there was any ongoing teacher involvement in their creation. The petition claims the students were working on them for the duration of this year.
The school is making contact with a student’s parents who are concerned the actions taken by the school are a form of censorship, Mackay said. He intends to make clear the decision on the second painting is about complying with child protection laws.
The petitioner said the students’ images were intended to be confronting, and had already been “toned back” in expectation of department expectations, with no breasts or genitalia visible.
“Unfortunately both these images were deemed ‘inappropriate’ because one depicted two girls in what appears to be a romantic embrace and also because of the so-called ‘inappropriate nudity’ and ‘sexualisation’ of young girls.”
