Beauty & the Beatas

In Bogota, Colombia, art lovers think highly of Jose Rodriguez' painting--especially his nubile nudes. They also think that Rodriguez, a shy and reticent man of 45, is not widely enough known. Last month, in an effort to get him a bigger audience, Director Teresa Cuervo of Bogota's National Museum opened a four-week show of his work.

Bogota's art fraternity was enthusiastic about Rodriguez' luminous beauties. The Spanish ambassador asked to borrow two of them for exhibition in Spain. But decency leaguers, known as the beatas (the pious ones), were scandalized. Father Eduardo Ospina, Jesuit professor of art at the Universidad Javeriana, sided with the beatas: "Crowds don't possess the artistic capacity to appreciate the total beauty of the human body." Bogota's Roman Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Crisanto Luque, formally asked the Education Ministry (which runs the museum) to take the offending ladies down.

The unfortunate museum officials obeyed with artistic indirection. They announced that, unhappily, a damaged lighting system would force them to close until, as it happened, the last day of Rodriguez' show. Last week, after several days of embarrassed silence, Education Minister Rafael Azula conceded that the lighting failure was no coincidence. "There was a moral aspect involved in the Rodriguez exhibition," he explained.

A visitor to the exhibition put it more simply: "Rodriguez' women are divine. The trouble is they're too much alive." Shrugged Rodriguez: "It was a pity . . . The public was just beginning to take notice." Then the shy artist went back to his studio to paint more nudes.

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