It's nude. Is it lewd?

Nudes are accepted at the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the Louvre in Paris, even Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. But five area artists discovered Saturday that the naked human body isn't quite as welcome in Nevada County's Rood Administrative Center.

The artists each contributed a painting for the month-long Annual Open Studios Art show which opens tonight at the government building. While the works of 60 other artists will be visible, those five artists will not be allowed to display their works. The five nude paintings were pulled Saturday morning as the show was being set up by Nevada County Arts Council representatives, at the order of Tom Coburn, Nevada County's general services analyst.

"(Coburn) was very polite Saturday but insistent," said Alexi Bonifield, marketing and outreach director of the Nevada County Arts Council, which sponsors the exhibit as a preview of this month's annual Nevada County Open Studios Tour.

"He told me he would see if we could show the nudes in the board chambers during the preview on Tuesday evening if we'd remove them afterwards and insisted it was a county policy for 'no nudity.'"

This censorship is a first in Bonifield's recollection.

"It's exquisite art which utilizes the human form as an expression of beauty. We were not warned in advance that there would be any restrictions on the show," Bonifield said. "It's not like the paintings are showing full frontal nudity. Two paintings contain the nude human form viewed from the rear, the three other paintings are of the waist up. They're beautiful pieces, you don't look at it and say 'oh look at these sexy paintings.' They're not meant to be provocative; it's just the human form."

On Monday, Coburn referred the matter to his supervisor, Rich Reader, the county's director of general services. That morning, Reader said, he reviewed Coburn's weekend decision to remove the art and supported it.

"The artists were told to take the nudes down because it was our feeling since the art is being displayed in a public place where the public is not coming to the building to see art but rather to do business," Reader said, "that there's a more appropriate place for the pieces. It's a public building, they're asking our permission to put their art there, and we have a say."

Reader stressed that the County Board of Supervisors "were not brought into the loop because they're not here on the weekends or necessarily Mondays."

As far as Reader knows, there is no written policy for determining if art should be pulled from art exhibits at the government building. He will take a "wait and see" approach about determining if such a policy should be created, he said.

"The other art that I saw (in the exhibit) was really nice, and we appreciate their willingness to display it," Reader added.

The words "stunned" and "outrageous" were used by Irene Nicolas in explaining her reactions to news her acrylic, "Hathor," was pulled from the show. "Hathor," an image of an ancient Egyptian goddess, was depicted by Nicolas as bare breasted and pouring milk into the foot of the Nile River.

To Nicolas, "Hathor" is the complete opposite of obscene.

"I believe that the images I paint represent the sacred; they are icons of the archetypal feminine. It is appropriate for some of those icons - like my painting of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Hathor, symbol of fertility, and love, and beauty - to have bare breasts. Her breasts, symbolically, feed all of us, who are her children. I am outraged that my work is censored by Neanderthals who are fearful of anything that is sensual and beautiful and does not represent their narrow view of life."

Nicolas, 64, who has sold art for more than 30 years privately, in galleries and at art exhibits and craft shows internationally, has never had her work censored before.

"I absolutely didn't expect this," Nicolas said. "From the beginning of art history, the nude body has been present in many of the great masterpieces of the world, including Michelangelo's painting of God giving life to Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Would the dinosaurs who run the Rood Center not allow the beauty of classical Greek sculpture in their hallways because most of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses are naked?"

On Monday, Nicolas and some of the other artists rehung their pulled nude paintings for the show with two changes - the paintings were covered up with cloth and the word "CENSORED" was tacked onto the cloth.

Although the Nevada County Board of Supervisors was not part of the events surrounding the art exhibit setup, that changed Monday afternoon when Board Chairwoman Sue Horne left her office to grab some lunch and saw the nudes in question.

"I looked at them, one in particular was this statue woman painted with either sticks or something propping up her breasts. Her breasts were very protruding. The banner on the painting said, 'Support our boobs,' " Horne said. "That is not appropriate, I don't think, but I didn't even make that call (Coburn made the decision). This is not an art museum. We have to be concerned with who's going to come in the building. For me particularly, it's children I'm concerned with."

Horne, whose daughter and sister-in-law are artists, pointed out she has great admiration for art but what really upset her was that the artists added the "censored" labels on the nudes.

Although Horne said it's too premature to discuss details about creating a policy relating to what art can't be hung at the Rood Center, she believes a policy will be forthcoming.

"It's very unfortunate it had to escalate to something that should have had adult dialogue," Horne said. "To me, it's being disrespectful to the county's position. That's like a slap in the face. Where's the cooperation, the ability to talk about it in an adult manner? We're not going to let them hang up there with the drape and word 'censored' when we should be able to have communication and discuss it without this being a big argument."

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The Nevada County Open Studios Tour's art exhibit opens tonight with a reception from 5:30 to 8 at the Rood Center, 950 Maidu Ave. off Highway 49. The reception includes entertainment by two Summer Jazz Camp 2003 combos and poetry by Grace Totherow. The exhibit will be up through Oct. 30. Call the Nevada County Arts Council at 271-5955 for more information.