It’s been a question in The Guardian quiz and talked about in world news, and it’s all because of Poppy Baynham’s naked woman artwork placed in the window of a Hay-on-Wye gallery.

The Chair Gallery, owned by Hay local Val Harris, saw itself at the centre of controversy back in September after Val was asked by the police to remove a life-drawing image of a woman wearing nothing but cowboy boots from her gallery window. Val refused to remove it.

Now, Val has just finished a second life drawing exhibit, saying that she didn’t do it as an act of protest, but for the artist's integrity.

“The chair is an artist-led gallery, where I select and curate artists coming in, but I'm encouraging direct selling,” Val told The Brecon and Radnor Express.

She said that two girls, including artist Poppy Baynham, came from London in September to set up the exhibit. “All the paintings are of the female form naked, more semi-naked.”

Val helped set up, before leaving the shop to go to a meeting. Before leaving, Val suggested putting paintings in the window, low enough for people to see over and see the rest of the artwork on display. That’s when Poppy’s painting of a woman with her legs spread depicting a black triangle with wool on top, rather than genitals was placed in the window.

“I get a phone call while I’m at my meeting saying that a woman has just come to the shop and we've got to take the picture out of the window because it's pornographic,” Val said. “I said just leave it in the window. And if anybody else comments, tell them to speak to me and within five minutes I had a text from a local tradesman and he'd gone in and said something similar.”

She said that two girls, including artist Poppy Baynham, came from London in September to set up the exhibit.
Val said that two girls, including artist Poppy Baynham, came from London in September to set up the exhibit. (Val Harris / BBC)

The text brought up concerns that the depiction of the naked woman was facing out to the street on a school inset day, with children walking by to go to the next-door ice cream parlour.

“I didn't want to remove the picture because it’s by a girl who's travelled all this way. I thought, you know, why should I?” Val decided to set up a meeting with her and the artists so that anyone with concerns could ask questions.

It also prompted a display, which read ‘this is not pornography.’

Val said no objectors turned up to the meeting, only supporters of the gallery, the exhibit and the artists.

Val said that the police then showed up, after verbal complaints had been taken to them. “The police came and said under the Public Order Act 1986, section five, you are causing alarm, harm or distress. We have been asked to remove the work. I said to them, I won't be removing the painting because I'm compromising the integrity of my artist and that's my business.”

Despite the objections from her first exhibit, Val decided that she wanted to run the exhibit again. “It got me thinking with all the responses that I don't want to upset my local community. But I do feel that it's important for artists they have a voice and life drawing and life painting have been shown all over the world, and I had a two free week slot. I had people inquiring, but I thought if I took that spot slot myself and asked people for open submission, anybody could apply to be part of this exhibition. What would it look like? How would it look if I just said life drawing and life painting? Over 30 people applied and I accepted thirty artists. Between them, they submitted over fifty pieces of work. I have 3D pieces, the rest are all drawings or paintings. And I managed to hang them all as a group exhibition.”

She says that Powys has a lot of life drawing in the area, including one in Hay itself. “It is an active, thriving part of their lives.”

She says that Powys has a lot of life drawing in the area, including one in Hay itself.
She says that Powys has a lot of life drawing in the area, including one in Hay itself. (B&R )

The response to the second exhibit, Slay Hay, has been positive, with people walking in and buying artwork.

“I live locally and the paintings catch my eye as I walk past and look through the window, so this is the first time I’ve been in,” Alice, a visitor to the exhibit said. “I was aware of the stories in the news, but it isn’t what brought me in.”

Val said that the second exhibit is not a protest. “People can think it could be a protest. That was never the intention. That's not who I am. I don't need to push back against that. People are loving it. I had more footfall for this exhibition than any of my other exhibitions. They know about it, they hear it, they think it's wonderful.”

She notes that the second time around, she’d had a full-frontal male nude in the window, and not one person had complained
She notes that the second time around, she’d had a full-frontal male nude in the window, and not one person had complained (B&R)

She notes that the second time around, she’d had a full-frontal male nude in the window, and not one person had complained. “What I ask you, do you think that would have kicked off? But you put a woman having fun with cowboy boots and it becomes a problem.”

She’s now noticing that people are stopping to remark on the work in typical British fashion. “Some of the men talk about sizes.”