‘EGG’--With Nudity--at a Later Hour

Here’s hoping that viewers have discovered “EGG the arts show,” a scintillating half-hour magazine that KCET airs at 10:30 a.m. Sundays.

Except when it includes nudity.

An earlier episode featuring photographer Laura Aguilar’s studies of herself in the nude was exiled to 12:30 a.m. and so, too, has an episode originally set to run last Sunday been bumped, this time to 11 tonight, which is nearer the occupied 10 p.m. Friday time slot that KCET broadcasting director Jackie Kain says she would prefer the series be run all the time.

A bold and graceful celebration of arts in all aspects of U.S. society, the series ranges from good to spectacular, and is at its heroic best again in this week’s episode, “What Is an Ideal Woman?”

With all due respect, don’t expect a parade of Darva Congers.

Do expect those nudes that prompted KCET to reschedule the half-hour.

There is no “ideal” woman, of course. What this episode does most arrestingly is define the eclectic lives and experiences of women through the prisms of such female artists as famed photographer Annie Leibovitz; Vanessa Beecroft, whose composition “Show” consists of gorgeous nude and barely clad models standing and stooping on stiletto heels; Ani DiFranco, the poet-rocker who runs Righteous Babe Records; and Swiss Pipilotti Rist, whose latest provocative video is headed for that jumbo screen in Times Square. Call it . . . unconventional.

Of special note here, though, are segments on sculptor Alison Saar and quilting. How’s that for diversity?

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It’s Saar, maven of the chain saw, chisel and hammer, whose work “Afro-di(e)ty” is included in “Departures,” an exhibit at the Getty Center that features local contemporary artists who were invited to respond to pieces in the museum’s own collection.

Equally artistic in different ways are the quilters featured here, notably women, both white and black, who gather weekly in a Port Gibson, Miss., cultural center to quietly create autobiographical “story quilts” and other works drawn from the fabric of their lives as females and Americans. As interpreters of culture through folk art, you might call them ideal.

Next question: What is an ideal time slot for them?

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“EGG the arts show” can usually be seen Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on KCET. The episode entitled “What Is an Ideal Woman?” can be seen on KCET tonight at 11.