Pickled foetus head fuels Swiss art furore

[David_Paul]

ZURICH (Reuters) - A sculpture made with the pickled head of a dead foetus attached to a seagull’s body has fuelled a furore in Switzerland about the boundaries of art.

Berne’s Museum of Fine Arts removed the piece from a Chinese art exhibition earlier this month after a complaint that it was disrespectful to the dead, and following concerns its grisly appearance might traumatise visiting schoolchildren.

The piece, named “Ruan”, stole headlines in Swiss newspapers when artist Xiao Yu confirmed that the foetus head was real.

Now the museum’s management will decide next week whether to reinstate the work, which sits pickled in a jar of formaldehyde.

“As a result of the complaint it was taken out of the exhibition with the proviso that there would be a debate about the boundaries of art,” museum spokeswoman Ruth Gilgen said . . .

continued here

 

[Lizzie]

Sad.

 

[David_Paul]

Lizzie:

Sad.

Reminds me of 19th century carnies who travelled the country exhibiting stuffed two headed animals and freaks to slack jawed yokels.

That is what the elite art crowd is. Uncultured and base rubes. Hidden under a cloak of wealth and arrogance.

 

[Lizzie]

David_Paul:

Reminds me of 19th century carnies who travelled the country exhibiting stuffed two headed animals and freaks to slack jawed yokels.

That is what the elite art crowd is. Uncultured and base rubes. Hidden under a cloak of wealth and arrogance.

I’ve given up on visiting US art museums because they follow the fads(urinals, soup can labels, poor primitive stuff) and no longer know what fine arts are.

The best place to see fine art is in the Vatican. .

 

[David_Paul]

Saw the Pieta when I was a kid. World’s Fair in New York. Blue lighting. Breathtaking. Saw it a few years later in the Vatican and it was more difficult to take in. So much around it of value.