His pictures reject the forward-looking art movements of the 1960s in favour of an ironic Victorianism they recreate the look of pre-Raphaelite photography which in turn licenses – if you accept their retro logic – some frank child nudity. Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.Ovenden's art might have been invented for an early Ian McEwan story of soured libertarianism set in these years.
“I am assessing the images upon the basis of the recognized standards of propriety that exist today,” according to the Independent. “I am no judge of art or artistic merit,” said Judge Roscoe. However, visitors can still make an appointment to view the works at Tate Britain’s prints and drawings rooms. The Victoria and Albert Museum removed more than half of its 14 Ovenden works from its website. Tate Britain briefly removed all the artist’s works from its site but later reinstated abstract works from before the period during which the abuses are alleged to have occurred. The convictions placed British museums holding works by Ovenden in a sticky situation, having to decide whether to publish the works on their websites or put them on public display.
He also pointed out that a Louys photograph showed a Victorian-era child prostitute and had been in numerous museum exhibitions. The septuagenarian artist seemed to imply that the judge was letting provenance get in the way of her legal judgments by pointing out that she deemed inoffensive one of his paintings, showing a young girl’s bare behind, which Diana, the late Princess of Wales, once commissioned to raise funds for a charitable cause.
“You are going to be looked on as the assholes of the world,” Ovenden told police officers in court, according to the Telegraph. He served more than two years in jail, and maintains his innocence.
Ovenden, 72, was convicted in 2013 of having molested children who posed for him during the 1970s and ‘80s. “Unfortunately,” Judge Roscoe told the court, “I am going to invite the wrath of the art world because in my view they are indecent,” according to the Independent. Those objects, as well as Ovenden’s works, must be destroyed, said District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe at Hammersmith Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Painter Graham Ovenden’s collection includes photographs and paintings by artists including 19th-century figures like French artist Pierre Louys and German-born artist Wilhelm von Pluschow. Artworks by an English artist convicted of pedophilia should pay the ultimate price, says a London judge who ruled that his paintings and photographs of naked or partially naked children are not fit for public or private eyes.
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