Here is the nudes: art to get gender equality

A BRITISH art gallery is to ensure its next exhibition of nudes has an equal gender split of naked men and women, as it navigates the post-#MeToo era.

The Royal Academy in London, which has just had a restructuring to celebrate its 250th anniversary, will have almost exact parity between male and female nudes in an exhibition of Renaissance art next year.

The decision, confirmed by Tim Marlow, the artistic director of the academy, at its new season launch yesterday, marks the first time it has introduced a gender quota for any of its exhibitions.

The ‘Renaissance Nude’, due to open in March, will include around 85 works created between 1400 and 1530.

It is designed to track the development of the “idea and ideal” of the nude throughout

Europe.

The announcement of its gender balance follows a period of deep crisis in the arts. Television, film, theatre, music and the visual arts have all been re-examining their treatment of women in the wake of the #MeToo revelations about sex abuse.

Per Rumberg, curator of the Royal Academy, said the curators had been “very keen in the beginning to have an equal balance of men and women”.

While he had not done a precise headcount, he said, “there is almost parity between men and women”.

The academy had also worked to gender balance the mixture of scholars who are working on the exhibition.

The idea for the show was conceived three years ago, and it will be put on in partnership with the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. (© Daily Telegraph, London)