BEIJING (TIP): A Chinese artist has caused a huge controversy by using his daughter as a nude model for a collection of his paintings titled ‘Oriental Goddess and Mountain spirit’. This has sparked an intense debate on ‘sexual morality’ among the artist community and art lovers in China.

The painter, Li Zhuangping used his daughter, Li Qin as a nude model to pose with various animals, including a tiger and a eagle. The issue came to fore after an art critic, Yuan Zushe, published an article in a local newspaper, China Youth, and termed Li’s act of using his 23-year-old daughter for the paintings as unethical. “Such a practice could have a negative impact on society’s sexual morality,” he wrote.

Yuan’s criticism was backed by thousands of art lovers and internet users, who said the father-daughter relationship is of a nobler kind and should not be put to such test.

But Li and his wife, as well as the daughter, see nothing wrong in the nude paintings. “I’ve never looked at the matter from an ethical point of view. After I got the approval of my wife and daughter, we began working together,” said Li.

He added that none of the family members felt awkward working on the painting. “Actually, it was no different than giving her a bath in her childhood,” said Li.

The daughter completely backed her father saying, “I’m also a painter. Being a model for my father is a sacred thing. No matter what other people think about us, we are very magnanimous.” Though Li is receiving flak on internet, some members from the artist community are supporting him. “Some artists ask their wives to model for them. But asking one’s daughter to model is less common. It’s very respectable that he has challenged the ethics and morality,” said Lin Mu, an art critic and professor at Sichuan University. Art website, oilpaintingcentre.com, said Li felt his daughter was best suited to portray a goddess in his mythological paintings that he was planning. “So he asked her whether she was willing to go nude for the paintings. Li Qin agreed, and both of them worked on the paintings for several years, finally creating these amazing works,” the website said in an article.