Last night prominent Australian artist Bill Henson had an opening of his current work cancelled, as police investigate the exhibition and Roslyn Oxley 9, the gallery where the work was to be shown.

The exhibition drew community interest because it contained naked images of young adolescents, the invitation to the opening displayed an image of a young girl facing the camera, a light illuminating her figure from behind.

Child protection groups have called for both the artist and the gallery to be prosecuted. Although, the gallery claims it had made the decision to cancel the opening due to public pressure and controversy, the exhibition itself would be shown as planned.

Henson has always drawn interest, and at times criticism, for his work that often depicts adolescents, relationships between these young men and women, in varying states of exposure, at times intoxication, and ribaldry.

Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison who instigated a Senate inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the media said “I think it is shocking and confronting, but I am torn on this. I have to say because I was an art teacher and I am very reluctant to want to censor what artists do and a lot of artists do want to be confronting, to raise issues, and in some ways, this does that.”

Henson is a world renowned artist having exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Roslyn Oxley9 gallery today issued this statement:

“After much consideration we have decided to withdraw a number of works from the current Bill Henson exhibition that have attracted controversy. The current show, without the said works, will be re-opened for viewing in coming days.

“Bill Henson is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists and is internationally respected. His works are held in every leading art institution in Australia and are included in the collections of a number of the world’s most prestigious art museums. The Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria have both recently held a retrospective of 30 years of the artist’s work.

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery will remain closed while the current exhibition is re-hung.”

And so another important voice is silenced in the name of conservatism.