No word about nudity or porn - it simply was not an issue. Enfants terribles don't do dinner parties. A naif, some critics suggested because she was unknown, but that didn't quite fit her sophisticated persona either. Now the old freedom fighters take up their rusty cudgels - the art world v the rest. But all this lacks conviction on both sides.
Censorship is yesterday's cold mashed potato, a truly dead horse.
Maybe the next Emins will win prizes tilting at this last taboo, but Gearon is not it - not porn, not much art either. The News of the World cropped the photos to make them look worse. The only question they raise is whether any portrayal of a naked child is now officially indecent, or breaching infant privacy. If so, take down the many National Gallery paintings where the Christ child stands proud to be nude on his mother's lap, naked penis prominently verifying his humanity. Venus's nipple - yes, women can be paedophiles too.