The senior arts figure Michael Gow has accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy over his response to Bill Henson's photographs of naked adolescents and said artists invited to the 2020 Summit were drafting a letter demanding an explanation.
Mr Gow, a celebrated playwright and the artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, said Kevin Rudd's description of Henson's work as revolting and devoid of artistic merit was unacceptable.
Only two months ago, he was telling arts delegates to the 2020 Summit that he supported debate and contention.
"The Prime Minister who invited us to Canberra has questioned the abilities and credentials of a major Australian artist," he wrote in a letter to The Herald.
"I regret attending the 2020 Summit and invite others who attended to join me in protesting the treatment of Bill Henson over the last few days."
Mr Gow said Mr Rudd's comments were hypocritical. "A lot of people are disappointed now."
Delegates from the Creative Australia forum have been emailing each other, condemning Mr Rudd's response and drafting a letter asking him to outline what he sees as the difference between art and pornography, he said.
Police seized the photographs from the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery on Friday and plan to lay charges under state and federal laws over the exhibition, which has sparked a passionate national debate about censorship and the sexualisation of children.
The Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, said yesterday that there was a broader problem of the sexualisation of children at stake. "I don't agree with the photographs, but I also don't agree with the way in which children are being bombarded in many other places, whether it's billboards, whether it's on children's television," she told the Nine Network.
"Children ... are just getting bombarded with sexualised images all the time, and it's that sexualisation of children that I think is wrong."
Henson and the gallery owner Roslyn Oxley have continued to shun the media, as reports emerge that they have been the objects of violent threats. The threats have not been formally reported to police.
Since news of the exhibition broke on Thursday, the gallery's answering machine has been inundated with angry calls, some threatening to burn down the building, said Ms Oxley's husband, Tony Oxley.
The threats have been condemned by Hetty Johnston, the child welfare advocate who made the complaints to police over the exhibition.
The Rosley Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Australia was raided by police over the weekend following complaints of child pornography. The complaints related to an exhibition of works by photographer Bill Henson, which included several photographs of naked pubescent children. Twenty-one of the forty photographs in the exhibition were seized during the raid, and police have announced that charges will be laid under the NSW Commonwealth and Crimes Act for "publishing an indecent article". Digital versions have also been removed from the Gallery's website.


Politicians on both sides of the fence spoke out against the exhibition. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking to the Nine Network, said he found the photos to be "absolutely revolting ... Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids." His Opposition counterpart, Brendan Nelson, believes that the exhibition "violates the things for which we stand as Australians and indeed as parents".

Art experts have supported Henson and defended his work, denying claims of child pornography and exploitation. According to Betty Churcher, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia, "there is absolutely no suggestion of pornography in these photographs". Sydney art dealer Denis Savill hung one of Henson's works, featuring two nudes, in his gallery window beside an Arthur Boyd nude, to "give them something to grizzle about".

According to Tony Oxley, husband of gallery owner Roslyn, the gallery's answering machine has recorded several threats to burn the building down. The police action also calls into question the fate of similar works by Henson in other galleries in Australia and around the world.