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AIDS Pharmaceutical Art Deemed Too Risque For Gallery-Visiting Children

The Smithsonian isn’t the only museum caving under the pressure of AIDS-related controversy. An artsy outpost in Madison, Wisconsin, has also decided AIDS art is just too scandalous for patrons, the AP reports. Think of the children!

A photo showing a nude man with a handful of pill bottles covering his lap has been removed from a Madison exhibit featuring amateur photographers living with HIV/AIDS. Overture Center officials were concerned that children who walk through the Playhouse Gallery on their way to shows could “connect sickness with genitals.” The exhibit runs through Sunday and was installed to coincide with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The black-and-white photo is titled “Stripped.” A narrative written to accompany the photo read: “I can strip everything else away, but the insidious virus still remains.”

Because nothing tells children to hate their bodies like a black-and-white print depicting the agony of AIDS. Now off to Sunday school, little ones, where your good priest will tell you about the joys of fornication! Evidently staying true to the title of the exhibit — “”Living with HIV/AIDS: Perspectives Through the Lens” — proved too difficult.

[Wisconsin State Journal]

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