Madonna Turns Coy on Nudity
PUSSSYKATT
LONDON (Reuters) - Pop icon Madonna, happy to bare all in her raunchy videos
and appear naked in her own photography book, is altogether less happy about
two new oil paintings that depict her in the nude.
The McLaurin Gallery in Ayr, Scotland, is the unlikely venue for the unveiling
on April 13 of the two nude Madonna portraits by Scotland's leading
contemporary artist Peter Howson.
"The reaction from her camp hasn't been good," the painter told Reuters in an
interview.
"I think they're frightened of what she'll think."
The Howson exhibition will be split between the McLaurin Gallery north of the
English border and the more hip Flowers Central Gallery in London from April
18.
Mother-of-two Madonna is a fan and collector of Howson's work and the two have
met several times, though the nudes are figments of the painter's imagination.
Howson has sent Madonna an invitation to the exhibition, but her spokesman
declined to say whether the singer would attend.
For his part, Howson is no fan of Madonna's music -- "my musical heroes are
Bach and Mozart" -- but he has spent the last 10 years working on the two
images of the 43-year-old London resident, who is married to British film
director Guy Ritchie.
"Nobody knows the true Madonna, not even herself," said Howson. "The thing that
strikes you about her is her strength, but there is a great weakness underneath
all of that."
The first painting depicts the singer squatting, with a small graveyard at her
feet, her arms lifted skyward, her body a mass of writhing flesh.
The second image is a representation of the naked Mrs. Ritchie on a bed
surrounded by five images: Mary, the mother of God; the biblical character
Salome; the Jewish heroine, Esther; Eve, the first woman; and the Athenian
courtesan Thais.
Howson won fame in the 1980s as one of the "New Glasgow Boys" and his paintings
earned him international acclaim. During the Balkans conflict he was the
official British war artist, traveling to Kosovo and Bosnia, where he came
under fire.
A reformed alcoholic and drug addict, Howson has for the greater part of his 44
years lived the archetypal artist's life.
"You have to use yourself in your art, but that can be destructive and it can
kill you. It's like walking a tightrope," he said. "Now I don't live the life I
used to. I thought my art would get worse, but it has got better. I have more
ideas and my mind is clearer, so there is more quality control."
The exhibition tracks the depths into which Howson plunged before he went into
rehabilitation -- an experience he describes as more "boot camp" than "trendy
clinic."
His lowest point came two years ago when he was so out of control that he was
unable to negotiate the three steps up to the kitchen in his flat. Now he
attends church regularly.
"My life has completely turned around. I feel incredible now and I've also got
my visions back which I used to have as a child," said Howson, a sufferer of
Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that manifests itself most obviously by
obsessional behavior.
Despite being at the forefront of British contemporary art, Howson has little
time for his conceptual contemporaries, such as Martin Creed and original bad
boy of BritArt Damien Hirst.
"All this conceptual art is rubbish and those artists who do that are being
irresponsible. They're putting the public off art by their stupidity.
"I would like art to be respected and deal with real things -- war and poverty,
things that are meaningful. Not switching a light on and off, or putting sharks
in formaldehyde."
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