ART

The controversy over Beijing’s first officially sanctioned exhibit of nude paintings--a show of 128 paintings by 21 artists--has taken a new turn. Reporters for the official China Youth News paper told the Associated Press on Thursday that six nude models will file suit against the Central Fine Arts Institute. According to the reporters’ account, the suit was filed because the institute did not obtain the models’ permission to print postcards and a book of paintings sold at the 18-day exhibition, which has reportedly drawn crowds of 10,000 a day to the China Art Gallery. The painting of nudes was for many years banned in the Communist country, although nude modeling was revived in 1984.