Seeing red over nude Mozart

[Merlion]

Yo, ho, ho! A self-proclaimed 80-year-old porn hunter was outraged by a nude statue of Mozart, and decided to do something about it.

By the way, Austria is holding a year-long celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

Seeing red over nude Mozart

VIENNA, Austria -- Two men who painted part of an avant-garde sculpture of classic composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and stuck feathers on it because they considered it pornographic, will be tried on vandalism charges, authorities said yesterday.

Officials identified one of the men as Martin Humer, 80, a former photographer who has gained notoriety in Austria as a self-proclaimed porn hunter. Police said the other man is a 79-year-old.

The public prosecutor's office in Salzburg, where Mozart was born, said the pair painted part of the Homage to Mozart sculpture on Salzburg's Ursulinenplatz with red and green enamel and stuck white feathers on it last August.

Prosecutors estimated damage to the work by German artist Markus Luepertz at about $9,500 Cdn.

The sculpture, which depicts Mozart in the nude, "has nothing to do with art and is a kind of pornography," Humer told reporters.

The above news is taken from here.

[G. Murdoch]

Interesting, there were no photos of the sculpture on the link, so I cannot judge whether the sculpture is porn or not, however I doubt it. I didn't realise that kind of puritanical zealotry existed outside of North America, always assumed Europe was more liberal in thier attitudes around sex and nudity.

Graham

[Merlion]

Originally Posted by G. Murdoch

Interesting, there were no photos of the sculpture on the link, so I cannot judge whether the sculpture is porn or not, however I doubt it.

Although this event was reported in more than 40 online news sites, somehow, none of them carried any photo of the statue. But after a Google search, I managed to find a site with a picture of a naked Mozart stature. As this stature is in a certain 'Mozarteum', this may be it. It can be found at the bottom of this webpage. But of couse, 'porn' like 'beauty' is subjective and is something in the eye of the beholder.

[sculptor]

Mozart as Apolo, the god of music, done in the neoclassical style of the 1800s...
Anyone who claims that this statue is pornographic is either
A) lying to you for their own deceiptfull purposes(little boy who cried wolf)
or
B) mentally ill

I would hope that we are well rounded enough to ignore this sort of insanity.
wash their mouths out with soap, sentence them to community service, and move on.

sincerely
rod
sculptor

[saisuhang]

Know more from you.

[Jay Long]

Actually, after seeing the sculpture, I think it is a fine piece of work, and the elderly gentlemen who defaced it with paint and feathers, should be tortured and then drowned. (just kiddin), what do you do with people like that?. I sure wouldn't like someone vandalizing my creations.............Jay

[sculptor]

what's the significance of the
RED PAINT AND FEATHERS?

confusedly yours
rod

[Merlion]

Originally Posted by sculptor

what's the significance of the
RED PAINT AND FEATHERS?

It is hard to understand the abnormal mind of this very old self-proclaimed anti-porn hunter. Apparently the red paint may not be something he happened to have at hand. He used two paint colors, red and green.

"Prosecutors say the suspects painted part of the statue with red and green enamel and stuck white feathers on it." Taken from here.

Red and white happen to be the colors of the Austrian flag. But green?

Something else is interesting, the two estimated costs of removing the paints and feathers.

"Prosecutors estimated damage to the work by German artist Markus Luepertz at about $8,125, although the Salzburg Foundation claimed losses of $42,000. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy." Taken from here.

Also shown above is the name of the sculptor, Markus Luepertz, from Germany.

[philpraxis]

Originally Posted by G. Murdoch

Interesting, there were no photos of the sculpture on the link, so I cannot judge whether the sculpture is porn or not, however I doubt it. I didn't realise that kind of puritanical zealotry existed outside of North America, always assumed Europe was more liberal in thier attitudes around sex and nudity.
Graham

Ahahha.... "so I cannot judge whether the sculpture is porn or not", this kills me. no offense
Well.... even if it was porn, should it justify such act?
And, I don't have a video of the feather-depositing so I cannot judge whether the action was a performance or not.

Well... Austria is _very_ conservative and has been so for decades creating a situation were contemporary art is pushed very far in provocation to reactionnary forces so strong in this country.

It doesn't astonish me at all in fact... In these days of fundamentalism, the law of social energy equilibrium makes it favorable both for catholic biggotry and muslim integrism-fundamentalism. Being in the middle is more and more difficult....

peace
phil

[fritchie]

I just saw this thread and normally would have skipped it as an example of publicity-seeking, but this time I looked. The image shows a reversed Apollo Belvedere, with Mozart's head (I presume, can't really say).

Here's a link to the Vatican's Apollo: http://sights.seindal.dk/photo/8951,s1045f.html

[Merlion]

Originally Posted by fritchie

The image shows a reversed Apollo Belvedere ....

You are right Fritchie. This one does look very much like a mirror image copy, except the heads.

Earlier on I mentioned that the sculptor is Markus Luepertz from Germany. He is our contemporary, born 1941. Here you can find some information about him.

[saisuhang]

I heard many story from here. Mozart is a well-know man!

[Studioinde]

I went through a similar experience with my own artwork a few years back.
I didn't have it vandalized, but I did have the State Police hassle and threaten me about it, even though it was displayed on my private property. Even more disturbing is the comments that I found later concerning the whole affair, posted on a right wing reactionary website. I won't repeat them here, but here is the website info if you want to see into the psyche of the "beast", probably similar to the octogenarian vandal in Austria. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/750222/posts
Where do these people come from?