Bracewell & Giuliani MP Criticizes Naked Woman Art Display
A naked woman standing in the window of a Greenwich Village art gallery as part of an artist’s display has generated controversy and a visit from police.
The exhibit by Brian Reed at the Chair and the Maiden gallery features the woman standing “fully naked” beneath a web of objects including shark eggs and teeth, beads and clay pipes, the New York Times reports. The woman must not be clothed, Reed told the Times, “so she can be fully at the center of that connectivity” of energy.
The woman is back in the window after stepping away on Sunday when police intervened, the story says. Police say she was merely responding to their request, while the gallery’s owner says the woman was forced to leave.
Lawyers differ over whether the nude art display is protected by the First Amendment. In 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a mass nude photo shoot to proceed in New York City, according to the story. The lawyer who pressed the case, Ron Kuby, supports the gallery as long as it is portraying an artistic message, the Times says.
The lawyer who represented the city in the dispute over the naked photo shoot disagrees.
Daniel Connolly, now the managing partner at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, told the Times that it’s wrong to portray the gallery’s display as a censorship dispute. The owner is just looking for publicity, he said.
“If you’re walking down a street in New York City and someone is naked in the window—and so children and whoever can see it—you’re depriving people of their choice,” Connolly told the Times. “That’s where you butt up against other people’s rights.”
