Male nude posters tout Vienna exhibition
Source: Agencies |
October 20, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NAKED men of all sizes and shapes are appearing on Vienna kiosks as a reputable museum start an exhibit of male nudity.
But outside the exhibition, organizers are being forced into cover-up mode after a storm of complaints that the ad posters are offensive.
In a show titled "Nude Men from 1800 to Today," the Leopold Museum opened its doors yesterday to examine how artists have dealt with the theme of male nudity over the centuries.
"Mr Big" - a four-meter high full-frontal photo mounted on plywood and depicting a naked young man in an indolent sprawl - is set up near the show's entrance, lest there be any doubt what visitors are about to see.
Inside, around 300 art works are on display - including the controversial photograph that is raising the ire of Viennese. Created by French artists Pierre & Gilles, "Vive La France" shows three young, athletic men of different races wearing nothing but blue, white and red socks and soccer shoes.
No visitors were complaining yesterday as they filed past that photo and even more graphic examples of male nudity, including some depicted in sex acts.
"I've seen worse on late-night TV," said Franz Steiner, 27, as he left the show.
Not so in the city. Posters of the three men had lines of red tape covering their private parts.
The complaints clearly caught the museum by surprise. Vienna's turn-of-the-century decadence allowed erotic artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt to flourish, and has turned these days into complacent acceptance of displays of the flesh. Today, lingerie ads are racy and one popular daily paper regularly features pictures of half-naked women.
Museum officials say they received complaints by last week, mostly from outlying districts heavily populated by new immigrants from Muslim countries.
Museum director Tobias Natter says the flap serves to point out "that nobody gets offended by naked women, but with naked men: yes."
But outside the exhibition, organizers are being forced into cover-up mode after a storm of complaints that the ad posters are offensive.
In a show titled "Nude Men from 1800 to Today," the Leopold Museum opened its doors yesterday to examine how artists have dealt with the theme of male nudity over the centuries.
"Mr Big" - a four-meter high full-frontal photo mounted on plywood and depicting a naked young man in an indolent sprawl - is set up near the show's entrance, lest there be any doubt what visitors are about to see.
Inside, around 300 art works are on display - including the controversial photograph that is raising the ire of Viennese. Created by French artists Pierre & Gilles, "Vive La France" shows three young, athletic men of different races wearing nothing but blue, white and red socks and soccer shoes.
No visitors were complaining yesterday as they filed past that photo and even more graphic examples of male nudity, including some depicted in sex acts.
"I've seen worse on late-night TV," said Franz Steiner, 27, as he left the show.
Not so in the city. Posters of the three men had lines of red tape covering their private parts.
The complaints clearly caught the museum by surprise. Vienna's turn-of-the-century decadence allowed erotic artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt to flourish, and has turned these days into complacent acceptance of displays of the flesh. Today, lingerie ads are racy and one popular daily paper regularly features pictures of half-naked women.
Museum officials say they received complaints by last week, mostly from outlying districts heavily populated by new immigrants from Muslim countries.
Museum director Tobias Natter says the flap serves to point out "that nobody gets offended by naked women, but with naked men: yes."
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