Naked in the Name of Art....and good PR

This weekend saw the latest offering from artist Spencer Tunick, for those of you not familiar with him, this is his website: I dare any of you not to snigger while looking at it!

http://www.spencertunick.com/index.html

Tunick is a genius at generating publicity for one reason and one reason only... We are fascinated with naked people. Basically he takes photos of lots of naked people in famous places. Im sure many artist's will argue that it has more to do with form, symbolism and composition, but at the end of the day it is as much PR as art.

You see, he doesn't just take photos and display them, he always has a reason for doing it, there is always something that he is trying, invariably successfully, to gain column inches for. From shoots on glaciers to highlight climate change with Greenpeace to Gay Pride outside the Sydney opera house... he has put naked people out there.

His latest offering was here in Blighty, to celebrate the forthcoming 10th anniversary of the L.S. Lowry museum in Salford next month. It is art, but it is also eye-catching PR that provides Guardian and Telegraph readers with their own equivalent of page three for the day! Don't get me wrong, It's a bit of fun and I like it, but lets see it for what it is, a stunt!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/7663921/Naked-volunteers-pay-homage-to-LS-Lowry.html

Perry