A pre-Raphaelite “soft porn” painting removed from a Manchester gallery to start a debate about sexuality on canvas has been rehung after a public outcry in which the venue was accused of po-faced censorship.
John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs, which depicts a handsome young man being lured to his death by a pond full of topless young nymphs, was taken down from Manchester Art Gallery on 29 January.
It was removed as part of a project the gallery is working on with the contemporary artist Sonia Boyce ahead of a solo exhibition of her work at the gallery that opens on 23 March.
This weekend it rehung the picture, thanking the public for a “fantastic” response to its removal, saying it was only ever going to be taken down temporarily.
Amanda Wallace, the gallery’s interim director, said: “We’ve been inundated with responses to our temporary removal of Hylas and the Nymphs as part of the forthcoming Sonia Boyce exhibition, and it’s been amazing to see the depth and range of feelings expressed.
“The painting is rightly acknowledged as one of the highlights of our pre-Raphaelite collection, and over the years has been enjoyed by millions of visitors to the gallery.
“We were hoping the experiment would stimulate discussion, and it’s fair to say we’ve had that in spades – and not just from local people but from art lovers around the world.
“Throughout the painting’s seven-day absence, it’s been clear that many people feel very strongly about the issues raised, and we now plan to harness this strength of feeling for some further debate on these wider issues.”
Jonathan Jones, the Guardian’s art critic, was among those who did not appreciate the idea. “To remove this work art from view is not an interesting critique but a crass gesture that will end up on the wrong side of history,” he wrote, saying of Waterhouse: “Even a kinky old Victorian perv has his right to paint soft-porn nymphs.”
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Rachel Johnson said: “We are already in a living nightmare of political and historical correctness, but to retrofit ‘artistic correctness’ on top is a step too far back to the neo-Victorian age.”
Visitors were invited to respond to the removal by sticking up Post-it notes where the painting had once hung. One read: “Feminism gone mad! I’m ashamed to be a feminist.” Another accused the gallery of “po-faced, politically-correct virtue signalling”.