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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 24, 2004

The nude: not lewd or rude but art

Lin Lu, the art critic from Shanghai Normal University, has produced an "outrageous" photography series now showing at The Room with a View.

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Lin Lu, the art critic from Shanghai Normal University, has produced an "outrageous" photography series now showing at The Room with a View.

His traditional Chinese painting style is combined with computer technology to create a series of startling images of the female nude.

In some works, the classical paintings look like tattoos on nude bodies, while in others, the nude becomes part of paintings done in the classical style.

In order to put this series together, Lin collected over 200 classical Chinese paintings and the pictures of nudes he has taken over the years.

The effect is a sharp contrast in time and space, full of humour or satire. One of the works depicts one of the most celebrated beauties in Chinese history, Zhaojun, who was married by the emperor to the chief of a national minority to stop border clashes.

Lin has a nude sitting on a horse led by Zhaojun and this work attracted comments from local officials.

Nude photography was a hot topic last year but the main methodology remains purely aesthetic - like pictures in a salon, according to Lin.

In creating this "shocking" series, he hopes to extend the limits in nude expression and he welcomes discussion on the topic, believing that is the way to push public acceptance one step further.

Lin has not tried to avoid the sexual element in depicting the nude. "Yes, you can do nude photography totally exempt from sexual issues, but by doing this, you lose in creativity and expression," he said.

Lin has published this series of images in a book.

Nude photography has gone very far in other countries but remains a sensitive subject in China. Some photographers may put pictures of Marilyn Monroe into Chinese paintings but nobody has ever gone as far as Lin has with this series.

Lin has been teaching photography theory for more than 20 years, winning many awards, and has published more than 50 books on photography theory and techniques.

Source: Shanghai Star

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