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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Minus the nudes, an exhibition of works by illustrator Burton Silverman will open later this month at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
Silverman, who chuckled about the church-owned university eliminating his nudes from the show, said he began doing nudes by visiting burlesque houses.
"Nudity in public life is relevant," he told the Deseret Morning News.
BYU officials said nude illustrations are irrelevant to the exhibition that will open July 29.
"The purpose of the show was not to show a retrospective of all of his work," museum spokesman Christopher Wilson said.
Rather, the exhibition is to show how Silverman, whose works have appeared on covers of Time and Newsweek, captures the human face and the essence of humanity.
"We picked works that reflect what we wanted to show about Burt's work," Wilson said. BYU officials told Silverman which pieces they plan to exhibit.
Nudes don't fit the theme of the exhibition titled "The Intimate Eye: Drawings by Burton Silverman," he said.
The museum will exhibit 33 of Silverman's life drawings. Many were preliminary to paintings, while others were commissioned.
Silverman's work, which spans four decades, has appeared in a variety of national publications, including The New Yorker magazine.
The university, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, does not use nude models in art classes.
In October 1997, the university attracted attention by hosting an exhibit of the works by 19th century French sculptor Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin, but leaving in the crates four pieces, including the famous work, "The Kiss."
A "lack of dignity," not nudity, was the explanation museum director Campbell Gray offered at the time.
The museum furthered the controversy when it refused to distribute a catalog accompanying the exhibit because it showed pictures of the censored sculptures. However, the BYU bookstore sold Rodin books with the same pictures.
Gray said there is a difference between a book that is bought primarily by art students and a catalog that goes with a special exhibit.
Merrill Bateman, president of BYU at the time of the exhibition, said BYU would avoid such problems in the future by simply not contracting to show exhibits that may contain questionable material.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
