Bible Porn
May 23rd, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
My article Bible Porn: Richard McBee’s X-Rated Biblical Paintings appears in this issue of New Voices.
Left: McBee stands beside his painting of Joseph and Potifar’s wife. ‘Jacob’ appears in the top right corner.
“Men are driven by amazingly similar desires,” McBee said in interview. “I am interested in the all-too-human [sexual] drive we share with our patriarchs and all those who have come before us.”
(See also McBee’s paintings Judah and Tamar and Joseph and Potifar’s Wife, which appears in the picture above.)
Interestingly, not only does McBee not see his works, however sexual, as pornographic, but he even views them as feminist in a way:
But to McBee, who defines pornography as that in which the “main or sole purpose is for the sexual stimulation of the viewer,” his depictions of sexuality are something else entirely. Though his representation of women surely leaves room for criticism, McBee maintains their feminist credibility. “The Torah is screaming the importance of women who demand importance, who demand a role,” he says. “Potifar’s wife doesn’t even have a name, but the Torah understands by putting her in such a position that she demands a voice. That’s what’s so important about these stories–sexuality as a venue to feminine entitlement. Without Tamar you would not have [King] David. Without Potifar’s wife, you would not have Joseph’s children.”
Pressed on the matter of his paintings’ feminist properties, McBee explained the paintings are primarily from a male point of view, though he is currently working on a series on the Trials of Sarah, which “is attempting to see that narrative from her perspective, as best as a man might be able to.”
“I hope to do more work that gives Tamar and Potifar’s wife a real voice,” he adds. “It is important to note that in the narratives themselves both women wield their sexuality as a means to further spiritual and dynastic goals.”
UPDATE: 3/3/2009 I see New Voices has changed their archives and the link doesn’t work any longer, so here’s the piece as I submitted it:
Tamar Sutra: Richard McBee’s X-Rated Biblical Paintings
By Menachem Wecker
Although Bible thumpers are considered the most vocal proponents of censorship, if they turned their critical eyes upon their own Bible and eliminated the narratives about violence, sex, dangerous substances, dishonesty, genocide, crimes against humanity and sacrilege, all that would remain are the words “In the beginning.” Indeed, many private Jewish schools seek a hybrid form of gagging their biblical cake and eating it too when they skip erotic sections of the text, most notably the two consecutive tales of Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38) and Joseph and Potifar’s wife (Gen. 39).
Orthodox, Jewish painter, Richard McBee (he signs in Hebrew, Macabee) seeks out those very texts in his art. “Men are driven by amazingly similar desires,” he told New Voices in a phone interview. “I am interested in the all too human drive we share with our patriarchs and all those who have come before us.”
McBee’s “Hop on Pop” shares nothing but a name with Dr. Seuss’ children’s literature. The painting, which evokes a work by R. B. Kitaj, portrays the biblical tale of the daughters of Lot (Abraham’s “brother’s son”), who erroneously conclude they are the only two women alive and set about repopulating the world with their father. Kitaj paints Lot’s daughters actually mounting Lot, who stares straight at his daughter-lover with open eyes, albeit glazed over by drunkenness.
In “Hop on Pop,” Lot’s daughters cover their faces with masks, because “they had to put something between them and their personalities.” To McBee’s brush, the sisters anticipate the Holocaust. “We understand the plight of these women, who felt this terror of annihilation,” he says. “I have no shame about the paintings I’ve done of them. They do what they have to do with this … we have to do something radical to preserve the species.”
At a recent opening of his new studio in Long Island City (his studio is actually numbered 613, although McBee denies choosing it on that basis), McBee showed his works based on the stories of Judah and Tamar and Joseph and his master’s wife. McBee’s Joseph is a Hassid – “I consider this issue to be contemporary” – which catches many viewers off guard.
McBee is quick to note all of Jacob’s 12 sons were righteous, so seeing Judah stopping by the local brothel or street prostitute raises eyebrows. “That very incident is the point of the painting,” he says. “All it’s doing is taking the story of the Torah and putting in it a modern context … This is the holy torah not my 20th century perversion.”
Although he admits the piece could be interpreted as accusing religious Jews, McBee stresses the work aims for the opposite position. “You see? Religious Jews are a lot like everyone else, that’s why we need a Torah.”
One of McBee’s Joseph paintings catches Joseph hovering over his nude mistress, looking over his shoulder at a reflection of himself or an image of his father (as the Midrash suggest) in a mirror. In a second one, Joseph buttons his pants as his lover hands him his tzitzit (“Jacob” is again present), ambiguously suggesting either restraint or that Joseph actually committed adultery. And in another yet, Joseph cowers in a corner in front of a large woman in a slip and boots, who looks ready to slap Joseph (again in front of his father’s image). “Sexuality is the common bond that we share with Judah and Joseph,” he said. “He’s Yosef ha’tzadik [Joseph the Righteous] by a hair’s breath.”
But to McBee that sexuality is not pornographic, in which the “main or sole purpose is for the sexual stimulation of the viewer.” Far from being an objectification of women, McBee’s art is feminist. “The Torah is screaming the importance of women who demand importance, who demand a role,” he says. “Potifar’s wife doesn’t even have a name, but the Torah understands by putting her in such a position that she demands a voice. That’s what’s so important about these stories – sexuality as a venue to feminine entitlement. Without Tamar you would not have David. Without Potifar’s wife, you would not have Joseph’s children.”
I asked McBee if he would be comfortable showing this work in a synagogue. “Sure,” he said, “but I don’t think it would be vice versa.”