Thursday, October 07, 2010

Work Sparks Heated Reaction



According to Art Daily, Kalispell, Mont., resident Kathleen Folden, 56, entered the Loveland Museum Gallery in Loveland, Colo., and used a crowbar to break the glass guarding a 12-panel lithograph titled “The Misadventures of the Roman Cannibals.”

The exhibition, which opened in mid-September and features the work of 10 artists, has garnered protests and been decried as obscene.

The target panel of the print, by professor Enrique Chagoya of Stanford University, portrays Jesus Christ engaged in a sex act. The work also includes comic book characters, Mexican pornography, Mayan symbols and ethnic stereotypes.

Folden reportedly was seen breaking the glass and grabbing the print, which tore the panel featuring Jesus Christ. As she broke the glass, she was heard screaming, “How can you desecrate my Lord?”

Though the exhibition has been protested all week and there have been suggestions to remove Chagoya’s work, he maintains he never meant to offend anyone with his work.

He says, "I critique the institutions and my disagreements with the way the church corrupts the spiritual. People might disagree with my views, my art, but I'm not trying to offend anybody."

The Loveland City Council decided on Tuesday to leave the art on display. Folden was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of criminal mischief.

[Image courtesy of nzherald.co.nz]


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