People who responded to the editorial on US v. Comstock (regarding the injustice of so-called civil commitment) wondered 'why on earth' were drawings by Brian Babinski included? One really needs to read (rather than just react to) the article to understand. The very point of showing the drawings was that Babinski was incarcerated in part based on his drawings.
Yet Babinski didn't abuse anyone to produce his drawings. He didn't even use photographs. People who have seen him work (including a high school art teacher) know of the talent he had (and perhaps still has) to create faces of great beauty -- albeit highly idealized -- purely out of his imagination. Indeed, while in jail in late 1995 and early 1996, awaiting extradition to California, Babinski produced some 100 drawings which absolutely could not have used photographic referents. (In the late 1990s, Alessandra's Smile sold giclées of many of them.) Incidentally, Babinski didn't spend a very long time on each drawing. He worked with a fast hand, a pencil, a smear stick and Arches Block 300 gsm Cold Pressed paper.
It was commented by one reader via email that Babinski should be locked up just for his drawings alone. What is one to say, then, of Balthus (who used models), Hans Bellmer, or Egon Schiele (who did suffer imprisonment in the early 1900s due to his drawings) or the many contemporary artists who depict girls naked? The Babinski drawings above have been cropped, but none of the three are as graphic as this image by Balthus, which is on the website of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (To be sure, Babinski also made explicitly sexual drawings, not just nudes.)
This is not a criticism of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Far from it! This is a criticism of artistic illiteracy and bigotry which prompts calls for not just censorship but permanent incarceration for crimes not committed. (One would think that exile should be enough, but Americans have an ever-growing tendency to want to see their political and moral outlook universalized.)
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