Pope Is Upset At Frog On A Crucifix

Art World Causes Offense Again

I guess it's one of my hobbies now to keep track of instances where art causes offense. In fact part of the Art Neuro credo ought to be 'cause offense to idiots'. The Pope Benedict, he of the Hitler Youth and Wehrmacht, is upset at this work of art above:

It "has offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the cross a symbol of God's love and of our redemption," Pahl quoted the pope as writing in the letter.

Pahl himself has long opposed the display of "Zuerst die Fuesse" ("First the Feet" in German), even staging a hunger strike this summer and saying he would not seek re-election unless it was removed.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press today, Pahl said he was outraged by the museum's decision to keep the work, which he claims "pokes fun at the Catholic population and offends religion and the pope."

The 1990 wooden sculpture shows the crucified frog nailed through the feet and hands like Jesus Christ. The frog, eyes popping and tongue sticking out, wears a loincloth and holds a mug of beer and an egg in its hands.

The museum said the one-metre-tall sculpture has nothing to dowith religion, but is an ironic self-portrait of the artist and an expression of his angst.

"With humour and a tragicomic sense, which belongs to art since the times of Greek tragedy, Kippenberger ... faces his condition of suffering, which he expresses in many works, also, for example, in a video in which he crucifies himself," the museum said in a statement.

One would think a man associated with Nazism, even involuntarily might refrain from charging the art world with offense but no. Clearly he is a man born of his times and he sees 'degenerate art'. That Wikipedia links to this article, just in case you are too jaded to click:

Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art entirely.
Degenerate Art was also the title of an exhibition, mounted by the Nazis in Munich in 1937, consisting of modernist artworks chaotically hung and accompanied by text labels deriding the art. Designed to inflame public opinion against modernism, the exhibition subsequently traveled to several other cities in Germany and Austria.
While modern styles of art were prohibited, the Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were narrowly traditional in manner and that exalted the "blood and soil" values of racial purity, militarism, and obedience. Similarly, music was expected to be tonal and free of any jazz influences; films and plays were censored.

I take it His Excellency the Pope is not entirely enamored of modern art, let alone contemporary art. According to Wikipedia, Martin Kippenberger was more interested in his own existence than spiritualism. I really doubt a depiction of a frog on a crucifix is going to cast Catholicism in a worse light than it already is cast by some - but I guess even such a maliciously idiotic reading is also a reading of the work itself. Clearly the Catholics are champing at the bit to take offense, and that is by defition wowserism, and they have that much in common with the Nazis.

The irony in all of this is that this was once the Church that paid for the Sistine Chapel. You'd think they had a bit more latitude with art and artists.