IF YOU SUBSCRIBE EARLY, YOU COULD GET A FREE MUSEUM TICKET.
Vienna OnlyFans
Who says you can’t get a little classy on OnlyFans?
Facebook, Instagram and TikTok recently blacklisted posts from a series of Vienna art museums that contained nude artwork, causing the museums to transition their artwork to OnlyFans, sparking a movement called “Vienna laid bare”.
Vienna is home to boundary-pushing artists like Expressionist painter Egon Schiele, known for his intimate nude portraits, and Koloman Moser, celebrated for his graphic art.
The Vienna tourism board attacked the social media giants for making them “casualties of this new wave of prudishness” and dares viewers to subscribe to OnlyFans to view their accounts.
The three social media sites that banned the art have policies against displaying activity on their sites.
“We default to removing imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content,” Facebook wrote in its latest post on its Transparency Center. “Our policies have become more nuanced over time…We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures.”
The Vienna Tourist Board is turning to the content subscription platform to post images of artwork deemed too NSFW for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, according to a fascinating new story by NBC. The images — from famed Austrian museums including the Leopold Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, and the Albertina — previously got the organization’s accounts flagged with content strikes on those social media sites.
Now, they’re hoping OnlyFans will provide a more welcoming home for artists whose work had been deemed by conventional platforms.
“What is Vienna doing on OnlyFans? Vienna is home to some of the world’s most famous artworks, many containing this,” the tourist board said on its OnlyFans page. “The most prominent social networks have policies in place that ban or censor such works. With our OnlyFans account, we want to give these artworks the freedom they deserve — including on social media.”
Sweetening the Pot
As an additional draw, the tourist board is offering its early subscribers either a city transportation card or a free ticket to one of their featured museums to see “Vienna laid bare” in person.
“By putting Vienna’s historical 18+ content on OnlyFans, subscribers can now view provocative works by the likes of Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl, Koloman Moser and Amedeo Modigliani — all of which are on show for all to see in the capital,” the Vienna Tourist Board said in a statement on its website.
Art Uncensored
The entire situation brings up messy questions about the nature of art and censorship. Where do these social media platforms draw the line between what’s considered art and what’s? And, at the end of the day, does anyone have the right to do so?
Regardless, it’s an innovative and unique take on the OnlyFans platform, which is typically used by workers to sell X-rated images and videos of themselves. However, the introduction of an established “fine art” organization might open the doors for others to follow suit. At the very least, it’ll provide another avenue for folks to take in some fine — albeit NSFW — art during the time of lockdowns and social distancing.
OnlyFans is known for allowing creators to post explicit content for their paying subscribers, and early subscribers to ViennaTouristBoard are eligible for a city transportation card or a free ticket to view the works “in the flesh” at one of the city’s museums, according to the tourism board.
In a statement on its website, the tourism board said the city has been home to artists “whose works pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in art and society at the time.”
The art that was censored over 100 years ago continues to be censored online as social media platforms crack down on explicit content, according to the site.