"Please note the photo above has been edited to obscure the nudity in this print version of the article in order to avoid offending readers. The unedited photo can be viewed on our website on the article which will carry a content warning".
That was the caption in the Whanganui Chronicle to a photo of artist Andrea Gardner's print after it won the Whanganui 2021 Patillo Art Prize.
You might expect the piece featured a large and confronting nude photograph.
In fact it's a small, historic, painted image of a woman's breasts - an intregral part of Andrea's print called "Now I Have Your Attention". Except now in the newspaper photo version, a piece of tape extends across the woman's nipples.
Lynn Freeman was puzzled why this would happen in 2021, and asked Andrea Gardner for her reactions.
We have this statement from the Sarjeant Gallery that manages the Patillo prize
"The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui is very happy with Ms Gardner's winning work "Now I Have Your Attention" and is delighted that this year's judge Reuben Friend chose it as the Open Award winner of the 2021 Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review. We are proud to have Andrea's work hanging at Sarjeant on the Quay with the 156 other Arts Review exhibitors and see no reason to censor the image in any way. As one of NZ's significant regional art galleries we welcome art that makes you think and Ms Gardner's work does exactly that".
