Art Controversy: Too Sweet or Too Nude?
Ilene Skeen prediction (you heard it here first): next Easter there will be a huge market in properly swaddled chocolate figures of Jesus for sale right next to the eggs and the Easter bunnies -- the answer to the headline question, I'm sorry to have to say, is 'too nude.'
NEW YORK (AP) — A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.
The “My Sweet Lord” display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, said Matt Semler, the gallery’s creative director. Semler said he submitted his resignation after officials at the Roger Smith Hotel shut down the show.
The six-foot sculpture was the victim of “a strong-arming from people who haven’t seen the show, seen what we’re doing,” Semler said. “They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions.”
The AP story goes on to tell about Cardinal Edward Egan describing it the sculpture as 'a sickening display' and the hotel receiving angry phone calls, emails and death threats.
To see the original story, click here.