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Life-Affirming Art?

In the West, there is almost a sense of resigned déjà vu each time a celebrity is captured on frame - in an immodest state - by the relentless paparazzi shutterbugs.

This case, however, doesn’t quite fit into that ‘genre’, and the BBC reports that Ms Bruni’s legal team argued that the First Lady “did not want the image’s original goal of raising Aids awareness to be ‘hijacked’ and used for commercial purposes”. Which is possibly the reason why Ms Bruni’s team is claiming $160,000 in damages. 
And it is ironical that at around the same time the French President’s wife was suing Pardon in sunny Reunion, the French capital was witnessing another naked show of strength - this time, in sub-zero temperatures. ‘Life models’ in Paris, who pose for artists to produce life-affirmative art, took to the streets, naked, in freezing temperatures, accusing Paris of showing philistine ingratitude, and claiming that the disrespect shown to the models was “proof that something is badly wrong with French society”.

The Paris city hall, that runs life-drawing classes, recently banned tipping for the models. Surviving on the minimum wage with no fixed contracts, holiday pay, security cover or job security, the cash-strapped models argue the tips allow them to survive. The naked protesters demanded “a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft”, and “held trade union banners in the pose of Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People” reported The Guardian. Talk about two sides of the canvas!