It may have been called "sick" and "degrading" by protestors who sought to stop it in Utah, but hundreds flocked to the opening of an exhibit by 25 Utah women artists in the nation's capital Thursday.
"I just laughed at the controversy in Utah. I couldn't believe some of the women there became so upset," said artist Heather Romney, who painted a stylized self-portrait nude selected for "Out of the Land: Utah Woman" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts."The controversy probably brought much more attention to my work than it would have had otherwise," she said. "This is exciting. This is the biggest exhibit I have ever had."
But several protestors in Utah County had petitioned state officials and the exhibit's organizers seeking to stop it before it reached Washington, saying many of the pieces selected were offensive or not true representations of most Utah women.
Loretta Nixon of Mapleton, who led protestors, earlier told the Deseret News, "The majority of the art chosen for this exhibit include protest statements about society and the women of our state."
Among the controversial pieces were photos of a nude on the desert, which the Springville Art Museum declined to show with other entries - but allowed those who requested to see it in another room.
"People saw it as erotic and pornographic. But anyone who has looked at pornography knows that's not what this is about," said Linda Jones Gibbs, one of three jurors who selected the winners, and a former curator at the LDS Church History and Art Museum.
Another controversial piece was a sculpture of an empty cradle covered with snakes, a gila monster and flowering cacti. Gibbs said it communicates the danger and beauty of being a woman.
And Romney's self-portrait nude, with a transparent box around the stomach displaying seeds and steel balls she collected, was also controversial. Gibbs said it and other exhibits "show women taking control of their bodies and deciding how to display them . . . It is blatantly honest and open."
Along with a few other controversial themes and nudes, the exhibit also has pieces ranging from traditional landscapes to a quilt-like coat featuring Utah mountains, seagulls and beehives.
Hundreds of former Utahns now living in the Washington area attended a posh reception to open the exhibit on Thursday - complete with a string quartet and champagne - that was hosted by the Washington-based Utah State Society and Utah's congressional delegation.
"The artists show different aspects of life and struggle. We can learn a lot from them," said Rep. Bill Orton, D-Utah.
Artists whose work was selected in regional and state competitions, include Sharon Alderman, Trent Alvey, Cassandra Barney, Susan Beck, Lee Udall Bennion, Laural Casjens, Susan Cheal, Shauna Cook Clinger and Lee Deffebach.
Also, Carole Alden Doubek, Mary Ellen Hogle, Cynthia F. Hudgens, Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg, Michelle Loury MacFarlane, Susan Makov, Jean Marshall, Kristi Mercer, Barbara Richards, Edie Roberson, Heather Romney, Diane O. Shaw, Pamela R. Stanger, Bonnie Sucec, Erica Wangsgaard and Linda Wilson.
Utah is the ninth state to be represented in such an exhibit at the museum.
The exhibit lasts through May 2.