Stewart Freshwater, a city employee by day and an art instructor by night, can’t understand the city’s decision to take down pastel drawings that depict nudes. Other employees have complained that the drawings should never have been taken down. Photos by Jeff Scheid. The wall is empty in the Bridge Gallery at City Hall where Stewart Freshwater’s pastel nude once hung.

It might be Sin City, but it's not Sin City Hall. Or even Mildly Titillating City Hall, for that matter.

The city of Las Vegas took down two pastel drawings of the female form after an employee made an anonymous complaint that the artwork was offensive.

The offending drawings depicting nude women had won a city-sponsored contest for locals artists over 50 years old. The pastels had hung in the Bridge Gallery, which connects the parking garage to City Hall, for about a month before they were taken down two weeks ago.

The artists are baffled at the decision to remove the drawings, particularly, they say, because Las Vegas is covered in more revealing and explicit images on billboards, magazines and taxi cabs.

"These were both award-winning pastels which represented the human form in a very tasteful way," said Kristin Pinkerton, the artist who painted "GiGi." "There was nothing suggestive or sexual in nature about these two pieces of art."

The other artist, Stewart Freshwater, said, "I'm a little shocked, a little disturbed. This feels like a violation of the First Amendment." Freshwater, by day a city public works employee, teaches classes on painting nudes.

But the city defended its position that no nudes are good nudes. City Manager Doug Selby said the pictures were taken down because of fears that the city could be sued for violating Title VII, the federal law that protects employees from working in a hostile work environment.

Selby first received the complaint through an internal system that allows employees to e-mail questions or comments to him anonymously.

He then asked the human resources and the city attorney's office to look into the complaint. Human resources made the decision to take down the offending paintings, he said.

"The first reaction was prudent, considering the potential for lawsuits," Selby said.

Since then, though, more employees have complained that the drawings should never have been taken down. The city is reevaluating its position.

"We're reviewing the action taken, to see if they shouldn't be put back up," Selby said.

He wasn't sure when the decision would come down. "It isn't the most pressing issue in the city of Las Vegas. We're hoping to be diligent, and make a decision in the next couple of weeks, if not sooner."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada ripped the city's action, saying the drawings should be put back well before the show ends on Oct. 27.

"The fact that the city caved in so readily shows both a total misunderstanding of Title VII, as well as a total lack of commitment to the ideals of free expression," said ACLU general counsel Allen Lichtenstein.

From the art side, Jerry Schefcik, director of Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the drawings were far from offensive, much less pornographic.

"These are figure studies, and you can trace them all the way back to pre-Renaissance," he said. "Artists are interested in the human form as a means of expressing the human condition."

Freshwater's "Rose" is of a nude seated woman's back. A few inches of the gluteal cleft is revealed. "GiGi" is a woman from the front view, her legs folded underneath her. Her bosoms are blurred and covered by a shawl. No nipples or genitalia are evident.

The Las Vegas Arts Commission and the Department of Leisure Services sponsored the art contest, which it called Celebrating Life!

Submissions hung at the Charleston Heights Arts Center between July 16 to Aug. 26, without complaint. Three judges picked the winning entries in six categories which were supposed to hang in the Bridge Gallery between Sept. 2 and Oct. 27.

"GiGi" placed first in pastels. "Rose" got second.

Less controversial fine art pieces, such as "Grand Rooster," "Winter and Summer Squash" and "Pincushions" remain. The spaces where Pinkerton's and Freshwater's artwork was hung are still bare.

Both artists want to see their work put back up, and fear the negative message this sends about Las Vegas' willingness to embrace art.

Both Freshwater and Selby had heard reports that the complainant was angry that he could not put up pictures of "pinups" in his cubicle. The person offended has not come forward.

"It's not only ironic because the city has designated itself as a city of asylum for censored writers, as an epicenter of free speech," said Gary Peck, ACLU's executive director. "But this is, after all, Las Vegas."