Jack Balas, 2024; GUSTAVE COURBET, L'ORIGINE DU MONDE, 1866 (MUSE/ MUSEUM) (#2689)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches.

Well this painting is headed to the Louvre! In Paris. In my dreams. Or actually across the Seine, where it can hang next to its inspiration, the 1866 oil painting by Gustave Courbet, "L'origine du Monde" (The Origin of the World) of a naked woman's "private parts," likely notorious in its day and maybe still, tho prominently hung these days on the wall in a gilded frame (see below). My young man is also hung, and part of my ongoing "MUSE/ MUSEUM" (since 2006) series that inserts my own male imagery where often women are presented (and no one blinks an eye-- especially when they're above the bar on large canvases). When I put the D'Orsay's wall tag info across this young man, however, I hope it gives you reason to linger over the image, and to consider the discrepancy in how we process images of women (we have been inundated for centuries) vs. those of men (taboo, toxic, yada yada...). Enjoy.