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Fox affiliate comes under fire for blurring out the breasts on a Picasso

In which a Fox news station totally undermines a record-breaking painting.

 

Gabe Bergado

Internet Culture

Posted on May 14, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 8:09 pm CDT

Don’t mess with art. That’s the lesson one Fox news station is learning after being called out for censoring the breasts on Pablo Picasso’s The Women of Algiers (Version O) in its Monday newscast about the piece of art selling for a record-breaking $179 million in New York.

Jerry Saltz, the senior art critic for New York Magazine, called the censorship by New York station Fox 5 WNYW, “sexually sick.”

While the news station probably blurred out the breasts because they deemed them inappropriate for television, it’s understandable why Saltz would be frustrated with the situation. Altering Picasso’s work not only misrepresents and defiles the piece of art, but it also perpetuates the surveillance of the female body.

The report should have been about Picasso’s The Women of Algiers breaking records for how much it was sold for. Instead, it inadvertently brought attention to the station’s staff. 

Others have also taken to Twitter to voice their outrage over the news station’s bad decision.

Looks like they could’ve avoided all this dissatisfaction had they just let the nip slip pass.

H/T The Sydney Morning Herald | Photo via arunadsouza/Twitter

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*First Published: May 14, 2015, 6:44 pm CDT