The Great Nude is Being Cancelled: Part 1
If you are even reading this, then I am lucky. But my luck is fast running out.
The algorithms of Facebook are aligned against me now. Every day for the last two weeks, I have received a notice about multiple posts on TheGreatNude.TV’s Facebook page that violates Facebook’s “Community Standards”. Those posts, many by the global community of Figurative Artists I know, are the same types of images I have shared since I launched the magazine in 2007, and I used Facebook to promote it ever since. Just Great Nudes. That’s what I publish.
Today, I received notice from Google (see below) that an illustrated exhibition review I published 14 years ago about Lucian Freud’s major exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art violates a copyright claim. Google is removing all references to this URL, and the “copyright holder” will seek removal of the page itself. (https://thegreatnude.tv/lucien-freud/)
Timing is everything.
When I was a young artist, in my teens, I started drawing what I thought were provocative ideas. These ideas I pursued were the cerebral meanderings of a young human, testing the limits of my culture, as I saw it. Looking back on my sketch books, I now see them the first open fields for me to let my mind run free, to work out the ideas and themes I wanted to focus on as I matured. Works meant for public consumption, to foster dialogue.
I made Art and a lot of my work seemed focused on Justice and Tolerance more than anything else. And Nudes. Sometimes mixing those themes together. I showed them locally, down south, to scandalous reactions. I had to move to New York, where Nudes, and Art, could be free to express.
Then the Internet came. As a committed Artist/Geek/Frontiersman, I started developing websites in 1993, launching my first gallery, and my career on the World Wide Web, as we nerds fondly called it back then, began. I knew this was an opportunity for all Artists to expand their audience. And I went ALL IN on digital empowerment. I became a Publisher.
I launched TheGreatNude.tv as a video magazine in 2007, available on a Host that I could control. This is 3 years after Facebook launched, 2 years after YouTube launched, and the same year PornHub launched. It was MY belief that everyone should have access to the Figurative Arts, and I wanted to helm that ship. Up until then, only Museums were where you could find Great Nudes. I wanted to change that.
As an Artist, I have always believed I had a right to publish what I wanted. And I have exercised that right with vigor. But the tides are turning for us. Artists are going to be some of the targets for retribution. I know Evangelicals. They are not happy with all of this Freedom. As for me, my content on social media has been watched for quite some time. And I have plenty of Anti-Trump/Anti-Fascist/Pro-Environment material on social media. I am not deleting it either. I am sure my “Liberal Score” is quite high.
I predict that I will be selectively deleted from the social media conversation. Whatever small contributions I have made for the Arts & Humanities, as my magazine’s Facebook Page is labeled, will be removed soon. Increasingly, there has been a limit on who sees me, and who finds me. They can make it harder for ALL OF US to talk to each other, just like that. Maybe this is already happening to all of us Left-leaning Friends on Facebook?
Part 2 of this Rant…
Comes in a few days. I knew this was coming for some time, and the trends were against me from the start. Some of you may have seen my announcement on FB? I will be going local and working to make an impact on my community and “teach their children well” as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song goes!
Back soon, my Friends.
Jeffrey Wiener
Publisher, TheGreatNude.TV (2007 – 2025)
PS. I can’t rely on social media to reach out to you effectively. So, I will be setting up a Newsletter on my own personal website, for anyone who wants to “subscribe” to me. More on that later.
