if you think it will bother guests- you'd have to choose which is more important... the art to you, or the comfort of your guests.

Or, just keep the nudies in your rooms, hallways, and out of the kitchen and guest living room areas? Keep the nude pics higher on a wall in a group of images- and it will de-intensify their offensive nature as they are seen as a group of artistic prints/drawings.... and not as the only thing on the wall - a big nude.

At the end of the day, you live there, your guests don't. While it's probably a good idea to keep anything that's a bit more on the racy side in more private areas, I see no problem with tasteful nudes in public areas. If your guests have a problem it's their problem. The whole fear of nudity thing is what makes nudity so taboo. I don't have any art that features completely nude subjects, but I do have a beautiful original sketch of a man in a loincloth and some pin-ups. I just moved in, so still debating exactly where to hang, but the loinclothed man will likely go in the kitchen/dining area. Quite prominent. If any children see it I'll tell them exactly what it is, a figure study. If the parents have an issue with it, well . . . fewer kids in the house.

I don't "fear" nudity in art, but I can't stand when it's used to shock or otherwise disturb the viewer. I resent the artist for it.
I think for most people, it's a question of context - people expect to see nudes in an art gallery, but might not expect to see it in the dining room.

If you have some great pieces that feature nudity, then I think they just need to be displayed with some tact - especially if you already know guests might not feel comfortable. As mentioned above, one must balance the love of art with the comfort of guests.

I think you should adorn your home how ever you see fit, guests are only spending a finite amount of time but you are the one living there.

I love Schiele, but if I really thought that one of his pieces (or my some of my own work for that matter) would really offend another's sensibilities enough to put a damper on the evening I would move it (temporarily of course.)

I vote for people to get over their fear of art nudity.

I agree with spectrogram.

Yeah, they're just boobs/butts/flaccid penises. We all got 'em.

I'm in the "people need to get over nudity" camp. If I had such art and enjoyed it I would display it in my home and people would just have to accept it or leave. Otherwise, why bother to own it in the first place if you are going to let your conservative friends decorate your home?

I have an Egon Schiele nude reproduction in the master bedroom but it's pretty tame. I can't quite imagine one of his more raunchy explicit drawings in my house with two small kids. I have a Picasso nude reproduction in the guest room, but again its pretty tame.

Tricky. It's 'home' -- a Personal Space so the right answer will vary with the individual.

This individual is a-ok with nudes of our taste (tasty nudes?) in photos and art in the house. That is who we are; it reflects our tastes and culture and aesthetic. People we invite to our home likely wouldn't find it offensive because most of our friends are like-minded. If they are uncomfortable in our space they are welcome to decline a future dinner invite and we can go to a restaurant instead.

The art you love is a part of who you are. For the most part, if you guests are comfortable with you they will likely be comfortable with your art. (This may not be an easy rule of thumb for folks who often have strangers or business acquaintances in the home though.)

IDEA: Give it a temporary try! Pick out your best David, place it on the buffet, invite over some candid, honest, opinionated friends for dinner and see what they say. Point to the nude in your dining room and ask what they think of his pecs over their pasta. Could be the best dinner party conversation starter you've ever had!

Growing up one of my friends fathers was a artist and had several large scale (tasteful) nudes in their home. I was there a lot as a child and eventually I came to think of them as interesting and beautiful.

Your home is where you get to freely express yourself, it would be sad if people censored it for guests and children.

"...why should I be limited in my choice of fine art because other people are overly sensitive?"

I think you've already made your decision. Personally, I have no patience for petulant 12 year olds masquerading as adults. I’m the type that would hang whatever I want, wherever I want in my own home and not think twice about it.
If your “friends” really have a problem with something let them grow the balls to actually voice their complaints, it shouldn’t be your job to make the real world look like the bubble they choose to live in.

Btw great post!

I probably wouldn't choose to display a Robert Mapplethorpe whip in the butt photo in a public place, but a run of the mill nude would not be exiled from my living room.

I have four very large nudes that I inherited from my grandmother. They are tucked in the smallest guest room. My people are too overwhelmed by their provenance to be shocked.

I think the art in your home reflects your taste and your character. Hopefully guests who get so put off by the nude in your livingroom can take a moment to view the art in the artist's intended light. My father is immature and gets uncomfortable by nudity in art... It's fun to watch him get squimish - "Yes dad. This is what the naked figure looks like..."

Keep porn behind closed doors, show art to the world. There's a huge difference between erotica and nudity.

I have a fair collection of b&w nudes. I placed them in double-sided picture frames that I made. If someone is coming over and I want to be a little discrete, I just turn the photo over on the wall. Still beautiful and only takes a second to do.

Uninvited visitors enter at their own risk.

I remember hearing somewhere that there's a difference between "naked" and "nekkid": if you're naked, you have no clothes on, and if you're nekkid you have no clothes on and you're up to something. Naked/nude art seems like it should acceptable in basically any context, but nekkid/racy art requires more thought regarding appropriate placement.

"Only in America"!

I remember my mom being upset by a roommate's poster of of a Modigliano nude -- really mom!

She's much better now (was even curious to see the red-light zone when she recently visited Amsterdam!)

Americans really need to get over their hang-ups -- they will find it's liberating!

Agreed! Get over it. There is no reason for nudity to be offensive, it is us as god made us. I could see and understand lewd sexual artwork being in question perhaps, but it seems absolutely absurd to be offended by our own bodies. If we act toward children that it is not obscene, they will not find it obscene.

I'm in the "Americans should just get over their fear of nudity, especially when it comes to art" camp. As an elementary art teacher, I'm constantly stymied when finding new and interesting artists to share with my students because the work contains nudity. This applies to great master works of antiquity through to artists like Schiele and other contemporary art. We need to have a vocabulary with which to deal with our reactions to nudity in art, something I think is my job to teach to my students. Barring this vocabulary, our reaction to nudity is insulted shock and horror, which, when you think about it, is pretty scary. There are many more horrific things in the world than a naked human body.
So go on, display that Schiele with pride. Your guests' reaction can be attributed more to his emotionally charged figures using gestural, graphic lines than to the fact that the figure is nude. A great conversation piece.

We don't know anybody who would be shocked by nudes; I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone who is religious or conservative. I went to art school, and spent 2 hours every other day staring at nudes and drawing them, so it seems second nature to hang nudes in our home. We don't actually have any, although I did toy with the idea of some pretty erotic wallpaper, but decided to delay it until the kids are a bit older. (they're fine with naked bodies though).

Sooso is right, there is a difference between erotica and art: the music, and the lighting.

But in seriousness, why be bothered by it? I've some lovely watercolours of partially-clothed/nude men in various natural scenes in my house, with rather obvious homosexual undertones.

I love them, so they're framed and proudly on display. The only thing my grandmother said was 'hmm, you may wish to hang this one higher, so it stands out better on display.'

There should have been a comma there -- it is pretty wallpaper which happens to be a little erotic; it's not vulgar.

I agree with go_go_gadget's assessment!

I don't have time for other people's pearl-clutching fears about nudity.

Their problem, not mine.

I have a nude in my front hallway because I love the piece. If others' hangups prevent them from appreciating it, that's OK, as it's not their space.

A friend got me a personal autographed picture of a porn star for my birthday once becuase her "porn name" and my real name are only 1 letter apart. I found this hilarious and hung it in the bathroom. The people who hate still life drawings would hate Ms Sara Jay in my house!

Get over it, prudes!

I have no problem with displaying beautiful artwork where the nakedness of the body isn't the point (e.g., I'd love a print of this).

On the other hand, a piece that's WEINERS WEINERS WEINERS isn't going to make it to the dining room. Not because I like weiners any less, but because artwork intended to arouse doesn't belong in the main living area of my space. The bedroom or private areas, sure, whatever.

why is the "someone must think of the children" even in the debate... we take our children to the art gallery where they see pictures of nakedness, violence, war scenes, goodness knows what else inappropriateness but because we call it art or history its ok... but the same painting in our home suddenly becomes not ok... I am struggling to understand.

...and please don't even get me started on what the children are watching on the television in your sanitised-no-nudes living room!

Oops -- "a print of this" was supposed to link to a vintage photo, a Victorian-era nude reclining with her back turned to the viewer and her long braid along the curve of her spine. My point is that it's beautiful, and it's intended to evoke emotions other than HAI LET'S BONE.

that was "inappropriateness" btw... call me anything but a prude...!

Cart before horse, methinks. If we could get over our fear of nudity in life, the art would be no problem - and nudity itself would stop being perceived as necessarily erotic.

Back in the day, when I'd occasionally go to a nude beach, it was clear to me how incredibly natural it felt... but only for the people who were nude. There would always be a few pervs with big-lens cameras, but of course they were dressed. It's only when you yourself shed the clothing that it all feels so natural, so pure. Otherwise, it IS just uncomfortable.

That would be the reason I'd choose not to display nude art in the "public" spaces of my house. Especially in the dining room! I think that's just tacky.

I have three nude drawings I did in art school in my home. I have absolutely NO intentions of hiding them or taking them down because I have a child in the home. My mother had tasteful nudes and even an abstract peice of art of her nude and in her pregnancy when I was a child. All very classy and non-offensive. If the Art is tasteful, I don't see why you can not have it displayed. It's all in how you teach and bring up your child.

I have Botero's "The Bath" in my bathroom. I love it and makes people smile!http://www.google.com/imgres?q=botero+bath&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1440&bih=733&tbm=isch&tbnid=kRJzxjtZ3IEEDM:&imgrefurl=http://www.art.com/products/p11666707-sa-i1015516/fernando-botero-bath.htm&docid=sw7XplWneUtJRM&w=382&h=450&ei=QkUwTqygL8PngQepv6zmCg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=186&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=140&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=73&ty=76

I firmly believe that whatever people do inside their own homes that doesn't hurt anyone is their own business. Your home is for you, not the public.

It is ridiculous how obsessed we are with nudity. My art teacher, in high school, had to warn and flag history of art books because of nudity!!!(talk about politically correct--sigh!) I'm a huge fan of appreciating the human form. I think a tasteful nude in a public place is fine. Keep the more sexual (nudity- doesn't necessarily mean sexual) to your room or private areas if it would make you worried about guest's reactions.
I think it's healthy for kids to see nudity--- we're all naked under our clothes-- better to see a beautiful painting than the softcore in movies/tv nowadays. I think presenting the body as shameful sets the stage for self consciousness and intimacy problems. As a society--- we just need to chill.

I am always amazed at what upsets people. In the town where I live, people wanted to put fig leaves over certain parts of statues in the front of a Greek restaurant!

People seem to get more upset over their children seeing nudity on the screen than violence.

I have friends who live in a clothing optional community. At first I thought that I could never visit them there. Now, I wish I had grown up in such an open environment! Why have hangups over something that is quite natural? Art? We just make sure to put a towel down before sitting on the furniture!

The irony is that if we start worrying about what will offend our guests we'll not be able to express ourselves in our own space. Nudity, after all, is not the only thing other people are offended at. It is your home, your space...do you love it? It should be out where you can enjoy it!

Why assume your conservative friends would be bothered by it? I'm conservative AND religious, but I know the difference between art and porn. Sheesh. Religious doesn't mean puritanical. The body is a beautiful work of art created by God. And there are quite a few conservatives out there who aren't the slightest bit religious.

Chose a piece that doesn't echo the pose in a magazine spread and I think his work is fine.

And if you like the spread images, put those up in the private spaces rather than than public.

Americans in the US really need to get over it.

Interesting discussion, but I think spectrogram at the top summed it up for me. Ignore the pearl-clutchers.

Also, I'm more offended by "art" purchased at big-box stores like Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

why is this even an issue? seriously, the crap that they show on tv is far worse than any random body part displayed on your living room wall. I'd rather a nude body than a violent police chase and murder scene and both of those are common on prime time tv.

Like most things that offend...I find that the people who are going to be offended are not the people I want to have around. (and visa versa btw....It is just as likely that my liberal artsy self is gonna walk into a conservative fundamentalist home and feel the urge to run like hell....consider it a warning system) Oh...and sometimes it is just best to meet certain people only out in public where their personal bubble does not interact too much with yours!

All that said, if you're still in doubt, you can probably find something nicer anyway.

As a European, I find American fear of nudity ridiculous and funny. What is wrong about it? Children will see? So what? You are not showing porn in your house, but an art, especially by Egon Schiele and considering it as possible disturbance for "conservative fiends"? Maybe friends should put some interest in art before showing their dissatisfaction about art and respect your choice of decorating your own house after all. Kids do not see nudity as something wrong, unless their parents teach them so.
I recently came back to states from month long summer vacation in Europe, where I had a long missed pleasure to lay down in Spanish beach, with many topless females, nude families with kids and was thinking how much puritanism distorts simple things and how much I miss no stress, simple and natural views regarding nudity. No one in the beach was bothered by nude mom or dad, no one was staring or acting out. It was not a nudist beach, a regular one, where it's your choice to cover up or not.
Here in states in one of the beaches I was asked to cover up, because I was wearing thong bottom of my swimsuit. I was told this is a family beach (which beach isn't?) and my attire was inappropriate. wow.

people have naked bodies under their clothes. I'm at work naked right now. Under these clothes I'm totally naked. The shame!!!

"...Nudity is found in the art of every period...[Today] nudity...all this is partly a reaction against Victorian prudishness (itself a sign of an unhealthy view of sex...)"-Rookmaaker

Get over it - its only a nude body

A visitor's embarassment by my framed Gaughin print in the foyer was surprising. I hadn't imagined that the nude women depicted could be considered sexually suggestive and vulgar in this time and place but, to avoid confusion, I eventually replaced the Gaughin print with a landscape. Nudes art often explores aspects of the human condition, such as aging, frailties, vulnerability, and mortality, that aren't remotely titillating. Even pretty nudes art often is about the ephemerality of physical beauty, that Gaughin's theme.

I've never understood what horrible thing seeing nudity is supposed to do to children. Is the problem that you might have to explain to them what parts the other sex has? You have to do that anyway, don't you?

I'd hang the nudes wherever and if people don't like it, they can leave. I'd much rather look at that than violence and American culture is filled to the brim with violence. It always amazes me that people get so wound up about nudity, then let their kids spend hours a day blowing people up in video games.

You lost me at the idea of worrying about what guests (or their children) think of my decorating choices. I decorate to please myself, and most people I know do, too. I put things away when children visit not because I fear it might confuse or offend them (or their parents), but because I don't want them broken. Beyond that, they can deal. I would never expect anyone else to accommodate my tastes in their own home. Hospitality is in the actions of the host, not in the art on the walls.

Beyond that, I'm another vote for people getting over their nudity issues, and to quit conflating nudity with sexuality. Bodies are bodies; we all have them. It's silly to be so terrified of something so utterly universal.

Nude does not equal erotic

Is this topic for real?

PS Oops, Gauguin, not Gaughin.

I had Egon Schiele's "Lovers" over my bed for awhile. I found it...inspiring!

I thought from the title that the discussion was going to be about "going nude" in the home; that is, going about one's own living space unclothed and the pros/cons thereof.
Would have made a much more interesting post, since we've had this discussion before (see the link to "The Proper Place for Nudes")

One of the best things about having a nude or two around the house is that no one ever talks about anything else! There could be an inch of dust and a dead mouse on the floor and all anyone sees or remembers is the art "Did you see the nude in the bathroom? Go to the bathroom!".
I saw a rather striking blue nude statue, bright blue , I am thinking of getting it soon, forget refinishing the floors, they will just get worn again, but that lovely statue!
As long as folks talk about the art in my home and not the dust bunnies I gotta keep going with the naked.

Living in America we did notice the problem with nudes but not guns that some people had, but it's not just American.

We have print from an etching of a naked woman by Norman Lindsay & my M-I-L thinks it disgustingly rude - she's an art teacher & used to embarrass my husband as a teenager with nude sunbathing & lectures of the beauty of the naked body, yet faced with a rather tame piece of art...

If you truly love a piece of art that contains nudity, then display it with pride. Those who are offended by it will stay away. Good riddance!

There is a difference between nude art and erotic art, but unlike some commenters I think the distinction can sometimes be blurred. Generally I think that having naked images of the gender to which you are sexually attracted in public rooms of your house is tacky, UNLESS those images are of significant artistic merit (ie the nakedness is incidental to the message of the work rather than its primary rationale).

The most important consideration when deciding whether or not to hang a nude is whether it is good art or bad art. Good art is rarely offensive (at least to the open minded) because the intention behind it is sincere. Bad art is often offensive because it's cheap, calculating and mawkish.

Good nudes (like The David) belong in museums. Bad nudes belong in a bordello.

I can't imagine having a guest who would be disturbed by nude artwork.

In situations like this I always remember something Harvey Milk said:

(paraphrasing) We have to let them know that they know one of us.

Society will not change it's attitude on nudity if the only time they see it is in Playboy and Penthouse. Society will not change it's attitude if the only people they can think of with nudity in their home are porn stars and perverts. Yes, it can be frightening. Yes, certain people will judge you for it. But who's going to make the change if it's not you?

So find your line, what you're comfortable with, and stick to it. Don't apologize for it, don't hide it, don't let someone else control what you do just because their voice is louder.

I have some inappropriate things scattered about my house. Most of them are subtle, although I have a picture in my bathroom that's quite graphic, in a funny way. If someone like my landlord comes over I just take it down for the day and then hang it back up. But generally I leave it up when people come over. I think that unless you have only nude works in your home, no one will think much of it or assume you're some kind of pervert. And if they do, then they're excessively prudish and will probably judge you for something else you do anyways, so why bother trying not to offend?

My upstairs hallways, where people have to go to use the only bathroom in our home, currently has a collections of pin-ups pinned up on the wall. Something about framing them didn't work for me, I have a collage effect of them pinned up though and i think it is adorable. i only really like the cutesy kind really though with a skirt getting caught on something etc. I don't like the truly erotic or crude ones. I don't mind nude art in the least but I and offended by the ones that seem to cross a line that they aren't really art any more but something more. When it starts to become, for example, pornographic I can have some issues.

Our Schiele drawing and a drawing by his best friend and studio mate Irwin Osen as well as two other drawings by fellow Expressionist Irwin Stoltz all hang in the bedroom because the room receives northern light and the drawings are protected from direct light. Other nudes by Picasso, Braque, Derain, Bonnard and Masson have migrated there for protection as well. The African sculptures in the living room are nudes but elicit fewer comments than the works in the bedroom. Although there are more female images than male, almost every comments involves the works with male penises. One artist's quote "there sure are a lot of d____s in here" seems to support the idea that Americans, including artists, are uncomfortable with depictions of male genitals. I had to smile at the suggestion that a more grown up room such as a dining room might be a better space for nudes. We have friends who have a Phillip Pearlstein nude hanging in the dining room. The foreshortened nude female dominates the wall. I find it difficult to focus on the food, drink and conversation when I sit opposite it; not because I am offended by the nudity or that it is pornographic (it isn't) but because it is such a strong piece of art and always commands my attention. I don't think one needs to edit one's art for visitors.