The $170.4-million sale at auction of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 painting “Nu Couche” (Reclining Nude) has been the talk of the art world this week.
The nine-figure price tag makes the piece the second-highest-paid-for work of art at auction after Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes D’Alger” (Women of Algiers), which sold for $179.4 million in May.
But many mainstream news organizations have been unable to show an uncensored picture of the painting. This point was made by Stephen Colbert during “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Thursday night in a segment titled “What Is Art? Follow-Up: What Is Porn?”
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“This isn’t the first time the news has de-titillated art,” Colbert announces, adding that when the Picasso earned its record price, certain organizations, including Fox News, had to blur all “eight and a half boobs” in the painting.
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Soprano Abigail Fischer performs Oct. 7 in the opera “Songs from the Uproar” at REDCAT in Los Angeles.
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Malaviki Sarukkai performing at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica on July 19, 2015. Sarukkai is the best-known exponent of South Indian classical dance.
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Bramwell Tovey conducts the L.A. Phil with pianist Garrick Ohlsson in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Hollywood Bowl on July 14, 2015.
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Argentine dancer Herman Cornejo performs in the West Coast premiere of “Tango y Yo” as part of the Latin portion of BalletNow.
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Jake Shears plays Greta in Martin Sherman’s play “Bent” at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles through Aug. 23, 2015.
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Dancers rehearse a one-night-only performance choregraphed by Raiford Rogers, one of L.A.’s most-noted choreographers. This year the dance will be to a new original score by Czech composer Zbynek Mateju.
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Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley in Los Angeles on July 9, 2015.
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Mia Sinclair Jenness, left, Mabel Tyler and Gabby Gutierrez alternate playing the title role in the musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “Matilda” at the Ahmanson Theatre. The three are shown during a day at Santa Monica Pier on June 16, 2015.
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American Contemporary Ballet Company members Zsolt Banki and Cleo Magill perform a dance routine originally done by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This performance was presented as part of “Music + Dance: L.A.” on Friday, June 19, 2015.
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Miguel, a Grammy-winning guitarist, producer, singer and lyricist, is photographed in San Pedro on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. His new album “Wildheart,” explores L.A.’s “weird mix of hope and desperation.”
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Los Angeles-born artist Mark Bradford is photographed in front of “The Next Hot Line.” This piece is part of his show “Scorched Earth,” installed at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, June 11, 2015.
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Paige Faure, center, plays Ella in “
Cinderella,” which opened at the Ahmanson Theater on March 18.
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The Los Angeles Opera concluded its season with “The Marriage of Figaro,” with Roberto Tagliavini as Figaro and Pretty Yende as Susanna, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
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“Trinket,” a monumental installation by Newark-born, Chicago-based artist William Pope.L, features an American flag that is 16 feet tall and 45 feet long. The work is on display at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through June 28.
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Conductor
Gustavo Dudamel’s contract with the Los Angeles Philharmonic has been extended to mid-2022.
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Alex Knox, from left, Carolyn Ratteray, Lynn Milgrim and Paige Lindsey White in “Pygmalion” in spring 2015 at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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Los Angeles architect Jon Jerde, who was outspoken about his opinions on the
state of public space, died on
Feb. 9. The CityWalk at Universal Studios is among his famous designs.
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Diana Vishneva as Princess Aurora in
American Ballet Theatre‘s production of “
Sleeping Beauty” that premiered at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in March.
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Los Angeles Philharmonic assistant conductor
Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla leads the orchestra in her first L.A. Phil subscription concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall on March 1 in a program of Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky.
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Rachele Gilmore as Alice and Christopher Lemmings as Mouse with supernumeraries in “
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Marcia Rodd, left, and Dick Cavett reprise their roles in “
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Irish playwright
Conor McPherson‘s latest play, “
The Night Alive,” ran at the Geffen Playhouse from Feb. 11 through March 15.
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Ric Salinas, left, Herbert Siguenza and Richard Montoya, of the three-man Latino theater group Culture Clash, brought their “Chavez Ravine: An L.A. Revival” to the Kirk Douglas Theatre to mark the group’s 30th anniversary. The play ran from Feb. 4 through March 1.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) “Where do we draw the line between art and pornography?” Colbert asks. “And what if that line looks like a butt crack?”
The rest of the segment concerned what Colbert deemed the “arbitrary” rules employed by CBS when it comes to what can and cannot be shown on the network.
For example, it’s perfectly fine to show the entirety of a Georgia O’Keefe flower painting, which Colbert says is much more graphic in nature than the Modigliani. Also acceptable: Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” which depicts the nude goddess on a shell, with her hands modestly placed over one breast and her groin.
When it comes to Michelangelo’s famous statue of David, CBS allows an image of the statue to be shown at a distance for a total of two seconds, which Colbert does.
“We’re all safe now,” he says after the image has flashed off the screen. “I just pray to God no one invents a way to pause TV.”
(At The Times, decisions to publish works of art that include nudity are made on a case-by-case basis, but the work is never cropped or blurred to obscure body parts: The work either runs as is or editors can decline to publish it. At the same time, works of art featuring nudity are given more leeway than nudity in news photos, movies or television.)
Those desiring to see the Modigliani painting in its entirety need to have “$170 million or the Internet,” Colbert said.
Twitter: @jessicagelt
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