Graham Ovenden
Encyclopedia
Graham Ovenden is an English
painter
, fine art photographer
, writer
and architect
. His estranged wife is the artist Annie Ovenden
. Their daughter, Emily
, is a writer and is a singer with the Mediaeval Baebes. His depictions of children have resulted in several legal actions against him, but no convictions; his work has received support from leading figures in the art world, and is included in the Tate
gallery collection.
into a Fabian
household, attended Itchen Grammar School (1954–59) and was taught music privately by Albert Ketèlbey
. He was a student at the Royal College of Music
, before taking up painting around 1962.
He was tutored by Lord David Cecil
and Sir John Betjeman
. He attended the Southampton
School of Art, and graduated from the Royal College of Art
in 1968. One of his most important teachers was James Sellars
, an expert on Samuel Palmer
.
He moved to Cornwall
in 1973 with painter Annie Ovenden and their family. Since then he has been constructing a neo-Gothic
building, "Barley Splatt" near Bodmin in Cornwall.
Ovenden was a founder of the Brotherhood of Ruralists
in 1975, along with Graham Arnold
, Ann Arnold
, Sir Peter Blake
, David Inshaw
, Annie Ovenden
and Jann Haworth
. The Brotherhood is still extant, although three members have left; in 2005 it had a major London exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. They were given the name "Ruralists" by writer Laurie Lee
.
His nude and semi-nude photographic portraits of young girls were published in the book States of Grace (Ophelia Editions, 1992). His photographs of the children's street culture
in London
taken in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Ovenden was a teenager have been published in Childhood Streets (Ophelia Editions, 1998) and in many catalogs issued by galleries and museums. Aspects of Lolita (Academy Editions, 1976) contains prints inspired by Vladimir Nabokov
's novel, Lolita
. A general monograph of his paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, entitled Graham Ovenden, was published by Academy Editions/St. Martin's Press in 1987. Other publications containing his work include David Bailey, The Naked Eye. Great Photographers of the Nude (AMPHOTO, 1987); Emily Brönte, Sturmhöhe (illustrations by Ovenden) (Carl Bertelsmann, 1981); Charles Causley, A Tribute from the Artist (Exeter University, 1987); Robert Melville, Erotic Art of the West (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973); David Inshaw, Graham Ovenden, Martin Axon: Photographs 1957-1981 (Plymouth Arts Centre Touring Exhibition Catalogue); Graham Ovenden Photographs (Olympus Gallery, 1984); Bradley Smith, Erotic Art of the Masters: The 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries (Mayflower Books, 1980) and Bradley Smith, 20th Century Masters of Erotic Art (Fleetbooks, 1980). Ovenden's work has also graced to covers of record albums (Malice in Wonderland (Paice Ashton Lord)) and books (notably, the Arden Shakespeare series, Sleep Pale Sister by Joanne Harris, and the British hardcover edition of A.N. Wilson's Dream Children. His work
is in numerous collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum
, The Tate
, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York.
As an authority on Victorian photography and illustration, Ovenden has edited Pre Raphaelite Photography (1972); Victorian Children (1972); Victorian Erotic Photography (1973); A Victorian Album - Julia Margaret Cameron
and Her Circle (1975); Alphonse Mucha Photographs (1974); Clementina Lady Hawarden (1974); Hill & Adamson Photographs (1973); Lewis Carroll
(1984); Nymphets and Fairies (1976) and Illustrators of Alice (1972). Writings by Ovenden on art and photography include Ruralism and the New Romanticism (Art & Design, 1988); On David Inshaw (Architectural Design, 1984); The Pre-Raphaelites (Architectural Design, 1984); The Black and White Art of Arthur Hughes (The Green Book, 1981); A Liddell Family Album (The Hillingdon Press, 1973); and Jane and Elizabeth, a selection of images of Jane Morris and Elizabeth Siddall (Hillingdon Press, 1972). In addition, he has curated numerous exhibitions, many featuring his extensive collection of antiquarian photographs, including the 1993/4 exhibition Recording Angels, The Work of Lewis Wickes Hine
.
Ovenden and his work have been the subject of broadcasts and films, including Lolita Unclothed for the series World without Walls (ITV, Channel 4, 1993), Stop the Week with Robert Robinson (BBC Radio 4, 1989), Curious Houses with Lucinda Lambton (BBC-TV, 1987), Bats in the Belfy - Home Sweet Home (ITV, 1987), Robinson Country: The Painter (ITV, 1987), Figures in a Landscape: The Brotherhood of Ruralists (BBC Radio 3, 1983), and Summer with the Ruralists, a film produced and directed by John Read for the BBC (1978-9). In 2000, the British Library funded a formal interview with Ovenden as part of its Oral History of British Photography series.
s, purportedly images of Victorian
street children by a photographer "Francis Hetling". The images were actually taken by Ovenden's friend, Howard Grey, and re-photographed and printed by Ovenden. Some of the images had been shown at the National Portrait Gallery.
A hearing before Magistrate Zachary Carter was held on May 28, 1992, attended by the subject depicted in the allegedly offending image, then 18 years of age, and eminent photo-historian and critic, A.D. Coleman. Both witnesses were prepared to testify and proferred written statements. The subject of the image on page 54 said:
A.D. Coleman's prepared statement noted the many artistic qualities of the image which were inconsistent with their being labeled "lascivious." Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union's ACLU Foundation Arts Censorship Project were also in court to offer their brief, which was joined by artists, art critics, administrators and organizations, in opposition to the government's attempt to censor States of Grace. As to the image on page 54, the ACLU brief stated: "[W]hether viewed individually or as part of the entire book, Ovenden's portrait appears plainly to be a photograph with genuine artistic, not pornographic, intentions, and thus a constitutionally-protected work of art."
Ovenden himself attested in writing as follows: "Symbolically speaking, we are dealing with feelings of the heart and the human yearning for Edenic simplicity - a state of grace, as it were, where there is neither sin nor corruption. The apple has yet to be eaten. The subject, of course, symbolizes this state in the photograph. At the same time, we see that the attainment of Eden is no easy task: the vulnerability of the child suggests, or rather confirms, the fragility of Eden, as well as its fleeting nature in the face of the concerns of the adult world and the demands of modernity."
Ultimately, no testimony was required at the May 28, 1992 hearing. In the face of the subject's account of her experience of being photographed by Ovenden, the statements proffered by Ovenden and Coleman, and the support of the ACLU and others, the government acknowledged defeat and returned the photograph and the proofs. Two months later the book was imported into the United States.
On May 21, 1998, censors in New Zealand classified States of Grace as UNRESTRICTED, meaning that it was deemed suitable for all audiences. A document containing the classification, Classified books from 1963 to 31 July 2009 is available online from the New Zealand Office of Film & Literature Classification.
On May 5, 2000, the San Diego Public Library announced that it did not consider States of Grace (as well as David Hamilton
's Twenty Five Years of an Artist
) to contain child pornography and stated that both Ovenden and Hamilton are "contemporary and historically important photographers" whose work is "culturally and artistically significant" and "within the library's collection-development guidelines". The determination was made in response to a ruling by a San Diego Superior Court judge that a man had photocopied images from those books "not for art’s sake but for sexual purposes." In late October 2009, British customs permitted entry of Ovenden's book, States of Grace, sent to a customer who purchased it at auction in the United States on eBay. The auction price was $350.00.
from Scotland Yard
but returned after a campaign by Lord Hutchinson
and fellow artists Sir Hugh Casson
and David Hockney
.
Ovenden's work Five Girls and 29 other images in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery
were accessible online until October 2009, following the scandal that erupted over a photograph of Brooke Shields
as part of the Tate Modern's 2009 Pop Life exhibit.
On October 22, 2009, after less than two days of trial, the jury was discharged and a new trial date set. On April 9, 2010, after a five-minute hearing the case was thrown out by the judge as two key prosecution witnesses, police officers who had searched his home three and a half years earlier, failed to appear in court. The police declined to comment and the CPS refused to disclose how much the investigation had cost the taxpayer. Graham Ovenden described the police as "totally and utterly transfixed by childhood sexuality" and himself as "a controversial figure and, at the moment, a very angry old man". The prosecution declined to launch an appeal.
On April 19, 2010, the Western Morning News
said the Child Abuse Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police, the force which had carried out the three and a half year investigation for the trial, was investigating Ovenden over allegations of child sex abuse. Ovenden said such allegations had been made at the start of the previous investigation and dropped, and that, "the Metropolitan Police are being very vindictive about this."
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, fine art photographer
Fine art photography
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. His estranged wife is the artist Annie Ovenden
Annie Ovenden
Annie Ovenden is a British fine artist and a member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists. She is a figurative artist.Annie Ovenden is separated from fellow artist Graham Ovenden. In 1975, she was a founder member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists with him, Sir Peter Blake, David Inshaw, Ann Arnold and her...
. Their daughter, Emily
Emily Ovenden
Emily Alice Ovenden is an English singer and composer and a member of the number one selling UK Classical Chart act, the Mediæval Bæbes, selling over 500,000 albums worldwide. She has recently published a fiction novel called The Ice Room and is lead singer of both heavy metal band, Pythia and...
, is a writer and is a singer with the Mediaeval Baebes. His depictions of children have resulted in several legal actions against him, but no convictions; his work has received support from leading figures in the art world, and is included in the Tate
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
gallery collection.
Life
Graham Ovenden was born in New AlresfordNew Alresford
New Alresford or simply Alresford is a small town and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is situated some 12 km north-east of the city of Winchester and 20 km south-west of the town of Alton...
into a Fabian
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
household, attended Itchen Grammar School (1954–59) and was taught music privately by Albert Ketèlbey
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey , born Ketelbey, was an English composer, conductor and pianist.-Biography:...
. He was a student at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
, before taking up painting around 1962.
He was tutored by Lord David Cecil
Lord David Cecil
Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH , was a British biographer, historian and academic. He held the style of 'Lord' by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess.-Early life and studies:...
and Sir John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
. He attended the Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
School of Art, and graduated from the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in 1968. One of his most important teachers was James Sellars
James Sellars
James Sellars was a Scottish architect who was heavily inflenced by the work of Alexander Greek Thomson.He was one of the designers commissioned by the Saracen Foundry to work on a set of standard designs for a series of decorative iron works, for example railings, drinking fountains, bandstands,...
, an expert on Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral paintings.-Early life:...
.
He moved to Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
in 1973 with painter Annie Ovenden and their family. Since then he has been constructing a neo-Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
building, "Barley Splatt" near Bodmin in Cornwall.
Ovenden was a founder of the Brotherhood of Ruralists
Brotherhood of Ruralists
The Brotherhood of Ruralists is a British art group founded in 1975 in Wellow, Somerset, to paint nature. Their work is figurative with a strong adherence to 'traditional' skills...
in 1975, along with Graham Arnold
Graham Arnold (artist)
Graham Arnold is a British contemporary fine artist, working primarily in oil and mixed media.Arnold, along with his wife and fellow artist Ann Arnold, is a founder member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists, with Sir Peter Blake, David Inshaw, Jann Haworth, Graham Ovenden and Annie Ovenden.Arnold's...
, Ann Arnold
Ann Arnold
Ann Arnold is a British fine artist and a member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists. She is a figurative artist.Ann Arnold was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and studied at Epsom School of Art . She worked as an art therapist, and founded the Association of Art Therapists.She married fellow artist...
, Sir Peter Blake
Peter Blake (artist)
Sir Peter Thomas Blake, KBE, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He lives in Chiswick, London, UK.-Career:...
, David Inshaw
David Inshaw
David Inshaw is a British artist who sprang to public attention in 1973 when his painting The Badminton Game was exhibited at the ICA Summer Studio exhibition in London...
, Annie Ovenden
Annie Ovenden
Annie Ovenden is a British fine artist and a member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists. She is a figurative artist.Annie Ovenden is separated from fellow artist Graham Ovenden. In 1975, she was a founder member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists with him, Sir Peter Blake, David Inshaw, Ann Arnold and her...
and Jann Haworth
Jann Haworth
Jann Haworth is an American Pop artist. A pioneer of soft sculpture, she is best known as the co-creator of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.-Early years:...
. The Brotherhood is still extant, although three members have left; in 2005 it had a major London exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. They were given the name "Ruralists" by writer Laurie Lee
Laurie Lee
Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter, raised in the village of Slad, and went to Marling School, Gloucestershire. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie , As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and...
.
Work
Ovenden is an artist, photographer, photo historian and collector of Victorian photography.His nude and semi-nude photographic portraits of young girls were published in the book States of Grace (Ophelia Editions, 1992). His photographs of the children's street culture
Children's street culture
Children's street culture refers to the cumulative culture created by young children. Collectively, this body of knowledge is passed down from one generation of urban children to the next, and can also be passed between different groups of children . It is most common in children between the ages...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
taken in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Ovenden was a teenager have been published in Childhood Streets (Ophelia Editions, 1998) and in many catalogs issued by galleries and museums. Aspects of Lolita (Academy Editions, 1976) contains prints inspired by Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's novel, Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
. A general monograph of his paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, entitled Graham Ovenden, was published by Academy Editions/St. Martin's Press in 1987. Other publications containing his work include David Bailey, The Naked Eye. Great Photographers of the Nude (AMPHOTO, 1987); Emily Brönte, Sturmhöhe (illustrations by Ovenden) (Carl Bertelsmann, 1981); Charles Causley, A Tribute from the Artist (Exeter University, 1987); Robert Melville, Erotic Art of the West (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973); David Inshaw, Graham Ovenden, Martin Axon: Photographs 1957-1981 (Plymouth Arts Centre Touring Exhibition Catalogue); Graham Ovenden Photographs (Olympus Gallery, 1984); Bradley Smith, Erotic Art of the Masters: The 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries (Mayflower Books, 1980) and Bradley Smith, 20th Century Masters of Erotic Art (Fleetbooks, 1980). Ovenden's work has also graced to covers of record albums (Malice in Wonderland (Paice Ashton Lord)) and books (notably, the Arden Shakespeare series, Sleep Pale Sister by Joanne Harris, and the British hardcover edition of A.N. Wilson's Dream Children. His work
is in numerous collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, The Tate
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York.
As an authority on Victorian photography and illustration, Ovenden has edited Pre Raphaelite Photography (1972); Victorian Children (1972); Victorian Erotic Photography (1973); A Victorian Album - Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes....
and Her Circle (1975); Alphonse Mucha Photographs (1974); Clementina Lady Hawarden (1974); Hill & Adamson Photographs (1973); Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
(1984); Nymphets and Fairies (1976) and Illustrators of Alice (1972). Writings by Ovenden on art and photography include Ruralism and the New Romanticism (Art & Design, 1988); On David Inshaw (Architectural Design, 1984); The Pre-Raphaelites (Architectural Design, 1984); The Black and White Art of Arthur Hughes (The Green Book, 1981); A Liddell Family Album (The Hillingdon Press, 1973); and Jane and Elizabeth, a selection of images of Jane Morris and Elizabeth Siddall (Hillingdon Press, 1972). In addition, he has curated numerous exhibitions, many featuring his extensive collection of antiquarian photographs, including the 1993/4 exhibition Recording Angels, The Work of Lewis Wickes Hine
Lewis Hine
Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.-Early life:...
.
Ovenden and his work have been the subject of broadcasts and films, including Lolita Unclothed for the series World without Walls (ITV, Channel 4, 1993), Stop the Week with Robert Robinson (BBC Radio 4, 1989), Curious Houses with Lucinda Lambton (BBC-TV, 1987), Bats in the Belfy - Home Sweet Home (ITV, 1987), Robinson Country: The Painter (ITV, 1987), Figures in a Landscape: The Brotherhood of Ruralists (BBC Radio 3, 1983), and Summer with the Ruralists, a film produced and directed by John Read for the BBC (1978-9). In 2000, the British Library funded a formal interview with Ovenden as part of its Oral History of British Photography series.
Legal issues
In 1980 Ovenden was prosecuted but found not guilty of fraud pertaining to his involvement in the production of hoax calotypeCalotype
Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. The term calotype comes from the Greek for 'beautiful', and for 'impression'....
s, purportedly images of Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
street children by a photographer "Francis Hetling". The images were actually taken by Ovenden's friend, Howard Grey, and re-photographed and printed by Ovenden. Some of the images had been shown at the National Portrait Gallery.
States of Grace
Mostly, however, Ovenden's work has been controversial for its depiction of prepubescent girls. In 1991, as States of Grace was being published, a set of proofs and a photograph for the book were seized by U.S. Customs and held for over seven months. In February 1992, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that the work depicted "sexually explicit conduct" and therefore was illegal to import, sell or own. During a court hearing one month later in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, a federal prosecutor identified page 54 as containing the sole offending image in the book. This was a substantial retreat from the government's initial position that the book contained numerous images which, theoretically, could be found illegal.A hearing before Magistrate Zachary Carter was held on May 28, 1992, attended by the subject depicted in the allegedly offending image, then 18 years of age, and eminent photo-historian and critic, A.D. Coleman. Both witnesses were prepared to testify and proferred written statements. The subject of the image on page 54 said:
I have known Graham Ovenden as a family friend for fourteen years - since I was four years old. I have modeled for Graham on numerous occasions - in fact, too numerous to count - for both his photographs and paintings. I have modeled for him both clothed and fully nude, both alone and with other children.... The portrait which the United States has charged as indecent is a portrait of me as I was eight years ago. I am not acting in a sexual way in the picture and Graham never asked me to sexual or treated me as a sexual object. The accusation that the image is "obscene" is, to me, an accusation that I am 'obscene,' something to which I take offense.
A.D. Coleman's prepared statement noted the many artistic qualities of the image which were inconsistent with their being labeled "lascivious." Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union's ACLU Foundation Arts Censorship Project were also in court to offer their brief, which was joined by artists, art critics, administrators and organizations, in opposition to the government's attempt to censor States of Grace. As to the image on page 54, the ACLU brief stated: "[W]hether viewed individually or as part of the entire book, Ovenden's portrait appears plainly to be a photograph with genuine artistic, not pornographic, intentions, and thus a constitutionally-protected work of art."
Ovenden himself attested in writing as follows: "Symbolically speaking, we are dealing with feelings of the heart and the human yearning for Edenic simplicity - a state of grace, as it were, where there is neither sin nor corruption. The apple has yet to be eaten. The subject, of course, symbolizes this state in the photograph. At the same time, we see that the attainment of Eden is no easy task: the vulnerability of the child suggests, or rather confirms, the fragility of Eden, as well as its fleeting nature in the face of the concerns of the adult world and the demands of modernity."
Ultimately, no testimony was required at the May 28, 1992 hearing. In the face of the subject's account of her experience of being photographed by Ovenden, the statements proffered by Ovenden and Coleman, and the support of the ACLU and others, the government acknowledged defeat and returned the photograph and the proofs. Two months later the book was imported into the United States.
On May 21, 1998, censors in New Zealand classified States of Grace as UNRESTRICTED, meaning that it was deemed suitable for all audiences. A document containing the classification, Classified books from 1963 to 31 July 2009 is available online from the New Zealand Office of Film & Literature Classification.
On May 5, 2000, the San Diego Public Library announced that it did not consider States of Grace (as well as David Hamilton
David Hamilton (photographer)
David Hamilton is a British photographer and occasional film director most known for his images of young women.-Early life and career:...
's Twenty Five Years of an Artist
Twenty Five Years of an Artist
Twenty Five Years of an Artist is a photography book looking at the long career of David Hamilton. The book, 316 pages in length, includes both photographs and 20 pages of text, scattered between the pictures....
) to contain child pornography and stated that both Ovenden and Hamilton are "contemporary and historically important photographers" whose work is "culturally and artistically significant" and "within the library's collection-development guidelines". The determination was made in response to a ruling by a San Diego Superior Court judge that a man had photocopied images from those books "not for art’s sake but for sexual purposes." In late October 2009, British customs permitted entry of Ovenden's book, States of Grace, sent to a customer who purchased it at auction in the United States on eBay. The auction price was $350.00.
Confiscation and return of images
A year later, in England, some of Ovenden's photographs were confiscated by the Obscene Publications SquadObscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene materials was governed by the common law case of R v Hicklin, which had no exceptions...
from Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
but returned after a campaign by Lord Hutchinson
Jeremy Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington
Jeremy Nicolas Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington QC is a British lawyer.-Education:Hutchinson was educated at Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics.-Career:He was Called to the Bar, Middle Temple in 1939...
and fellow artists Sir Hugh Casson
Hugh Casson
Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson, KCVO, RA, RDI, was a British architect, interior designer, artist, and influential writer and broadcaster on 20th century design. He is particularly noted for his role as director of architecture at the 1951 Festival of Britain on London's South Bank.Casson's family...
and David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
.
Ovenden's work Five Girls and 29 other images in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
were accessible online until October 2009, following the scandal that erupted over a photograph of Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
as part of the Tate Modern's 2009 Pop Life exhibit.
Prosecution and failure of case
In 2009 Ovenden was charged with 16 counts of creating 'indecent' photographs or pseudo-photographs (i.e., artistic renderings which appear to be photographs) of children, and two counts of possessing 121 'indecent' photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. The 121 images are all versions or stages of the 16 works and had been deleted from Ovenden's computer at the time his home was raided in 2006. The images were subsequently undeleted by police. The prosecution argued that the these images are 'indecent' and that there can be no defence of creating or possessing 'indecent' photographs or pseudo-photographs for artistic purposes. The defence argued that the works 121 images were temporary stages toward the creation of the 16 works, that those works constitute art and in no event were any of the works created with criminal intent. The Crown has not alleged that the images at issue depict any actual children.On October 22, 2009, after less than two days of trial, the jury was discharged and a new trial date set. On April 9, 2010, after a five-minute hearing the case was thrown out by the judge as two key prosecution witnesses, police officers who had searched his home three and a half years earlier, failed to appear in court. The police declined to comment and the CPS refused to disclose how much the investigation had cost the taxpayer. Graham Ovenden described the police as "totally and utterly transfixed by childhood sexuality" and himself as "a controversial figure and, at the moment, a very angry old man". The prosecution declined to launch an appeal.
On April 19, 2010, the Western Morning News
Western Morning News
The Western Morning News is a politically independent daily regional newspaper founded in 1860 and covering Devon and Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset.-Organisation:...
said the Child Abuse Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police, the force which had carried out the three and a half year investigation for the trial, was investigating Ovenden over allegations of child sex abuse. Ovenden said such allegations had been made at the start of the previous investigation and dropped, and that, "the Metropolitan Police are being very vindictive about this."
Further reading
- Victor Arwas, Laurie LeeLaurie LeeLaurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter, raised in the village of Slad, and went to Marling School, Gloucestershire. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie , As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and...
, Robert Melville. Graham Ovenden. (Academy Editions, 1987). - The Brotherhood of Ruralists - A Celebration (2003).
- Christopher Martin (Ed). Art & Design No.23 - The Ruralists (Academy Editions, 1991).
- Hugh Cumming. "Post-Modern Landscape: The Art of Graham Ovenden" in: Art and Design: The Post-Avant-Garde Painting in the Eighties (1987).