A retrospective of artist Alfred Hrdlicka's work rubbed some Catholics the wrong way. The show, meant to celebrate the Austrian national's 80th birthday, included a sketch of the last supper as a gay orgy. Though the museum, Vienna's Roman Catholic Dommuseum, didn't originally object to the piece's inclusion, Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn raised holy hell to have it removed:
This has nothing to do with censorship", said the Cardinal, adding that it was removed with "reverence for the sacred".
But other pictures which have proved also controversial, including one showing Christ being fondled while on the cross, are still on display.
Bernhard Boehler, the museum curator, has insisted that despite the criticism, the exhibition is serving its purpose by encouraging debate.
Boehler also said he sees nothing blasphemous about Hrdlicka's work.
Update: To clarify any confusion, the picture is of Hrdlicka, whose face totally rules.
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I can't say I'm thrilled by this sort of "art." It's an unnecessary provocation and the Right will use it to demonstrate that we are lunatics, blasphemers, etc.
Well what exactly do people expect the response to be to "art" that purposefully provokes and offends? I'm not saying it should be censored or that indignation or riots are an appropriate response, but really: it's like putting a pro-Phelps float at a pride parade–the response is predictable with a significant degree of accuracy, and the resulting "debate" is of minimal constructive value.
I'm not gonna say anything about the picture unless i can see it!
How can you have a blog item entirely about a picture and then not show the picture?!?!?!
Can someone at least link to the picture?
Any Catholic who objects to homo-erotic art has clearly never been to the Vatican Museums. The place is loaded with the stuff.
http://voxhumanae.files.wordpr......jpg?w=420
Thanks for the link… I'll have what he's having.
I'm not hungry, I'll just pick.
The picture is fierce.
"The artist's role is to disturb."
- Barbra Streisand
You mean the Last Supper wasn't a gay orgy? Didn't they eat of his flesh and drink his blood? Wasn't Jesus a gay man? I've heard that rumor. Oh, one man's myth is another man's lunacy I suppose.
Cardinal Schönborn has given a statement explaining his stand on the Hrdlicka Last Supper painting. The text is on the Reuters religion blog FaithWorld at http://blogs.reuters.com/faith.....-painting/
That's just Brilliant!
I think the painting is sick, hideous and the thought to even portray Jesus Christ as gay is so ludicrous….I don't hate gay people, but I hate their actions….and I am deeply insulted as a Christian…not Roman Catholic either….SDA Christian.. for this painting to have been created. But God is watching, and the just shall be separated from the wicked. I will pray for you all.
"Mark you this…the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek."
1596 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice i. iii. 93
Hrdlicka’s work may be called "art,"
but that does not make it so,
nor nearly hit the mark.