South African learners need to be protected from the naked truth, it seems. According to the The Teacher newspaper -. the Education Department disclosed that it has removed controversial artist
Steven Cohen from the visual arts
curriculum’s prescribed list, saying his works are not suitable for school learners.

Performance artist Cohen was removed from the list at the end of the first school term this year. The exclusion of Cohen, regarded as one of South Africa’s premier living artists sparked debate among the visual arts fraternity.
Issues Cohen deals with include : homophobia, racism, xenophobia, genocide and state repression. Bronwen Law-Viljoen of David Krut Publishing, the house which publishes Cohen’s art said she is certain schoolchildren could
learn from Cohen’s work.”Just as one might say that children will learn something from looking at a Picasso painting”.
What they take from his art depends on the context in which they are viewing the work, the guidance they are given by their teachers and the knowledge of art they already possess”.
In “The Teacher” Len Lordan, national examiner of art history at the Independent Examination Board, argued that it is imperative that students are exposed to such art forms. Lordan said learners face all forms of explicit material and Cohen addresses societal issues that are educationally sound to facilitate informed engagement. Lordan said she would rather teach Steven Cohen in the classroom than have learners accessing explicit content from magazines and other sources, that lack meaning.