​posted by Otto Rapp

WATCH VIDEO: A Lethbridge student's art piece is being called, by some, too controversial for elementary school students. The Lethbridge Public School Board asked the Southern Alberta Art Gallery to take the piece down after a parent complained.

A piece of art created by a Lethbridge high school student has been taken down from where it was hung at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG) after someone filed a complaint about it. ..............​ Kimberly Tams from CBC has more.

My own 2 cents worth of comment:

​Is this for real? It sounds like a bad Saturday Night Live spoof about this Alberta hick town, or maybe something one would expect to happen in ISIS controlled parts of Syria. Certainly not in a modern Western Society. That the Lethbridge School District 51 would give in to a complaint by a obviously uncultured prude is astonishing; laughable if it were not such a sad reflection on what misunderstood 'political correctness' has come to dictate, forcing the moral position of one onto the general public. What next? This piece is a brillant collage by this grade 12 student, a tribute to historical art. Next would be banning any depictions of Michelangelo's work found in places such as the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Good enough for the pope, but oh, not suitable for the morals of prudish Lethbridge. And again, Southern Alberta's Lethbridge makes it self the laughing stock of Canada and the world! Way to go!

 But it appears this made the rounds already, here is a write-up in Metro News:

A student's work has been deemed too racy for a Lethbridge school board's elementary school children after parent complaints.
The classic art remix, a collage of works including the Birth of Venus, has been whisked away to a private viewing room.  
All of the schools in Lethbridge participate in an arts program to submit student work chosen by teachers to the Southern Alberta Art Galley (SAAG) – it’s called Art’s Alive.
The works range from kindergarten-aged children to students in Grade 12.
On Wednesday of last week the Lethbridge School District No. 51 took down a Grade 12 student's work after a parent, or several parents, complained “about the content of the work.”
...... read more
by  Helen Pike Metro News

UPDATE:

I had posted the original CBC article on Facebook. One comment I found particularly fitting was by a Portuguese artist friend:

Crazyness! I would call it the "Fig Leaf syndrome". I recall the Michelangelo's David episode... but that happened in the Victorian era . Nowadays, people with such psychological disorders would make better use of their time getting adequate therapy instead of spending time in galleries. Just sayin'...

Numerous assistants helped in the completion of this project.

From an insiders point of view:

Images in  the gallery below are courtesy of Maria Antonia 'Gigi' Schramek, long-time assistant of Ernst Fuchs.

Post by Otto Rapp

Post by Otto Rapp

Embedded playlist from YouTube by SirMixItAllUp2 ▼

​"American Visions," an eight-part series on American art written and narrated by Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, is both an account of American life and a tribute to American art that will likely propel thousands of the not-yet-converted into museums and galleries, antiques shows and auction rooms to see (and inevitably shop) for themselves. Filmed in 100 locations around the country, covering everything from Quaker to Shaker, George Washington to Bierstadt, Remington to Warhol, and the skyscrapers of New York City, Hughes has applied his considerable wit and imagination to the problem of revealing how art records and preserves both points of view and ways of life. It is American history told through art, not merely a history of art. It offers a perspective that is refreshingly elevating and inclusive.

--- by William Hosley

from Amazon.com Review of the Book:

Australian-born art critic Robert Hughes, author of the highly acclaimed study of modern art, 'The Shock of the New' has made his home in the United States for the last 20 years. His latest undertaking, which he calls "a love letter to America," is his most massive: a 350-year history of art in America. Published in association with an eight-part PBS series of the same name, this is no scholarly text. With the same voracious wit and opinionated brilliance that have characterized his criticism for Time magazine, this tour-de-force spans three centuries of events, movements, and personalities that have shaped American society and its art.

Post by Otto Rapp

The recent exhibition Phantastische Venus in Viechtach made me think of this great romantic painting by Alexandre Cabanel, painted in 1863. 

Rothaug Alexander (born March 13, 1870 in Vienna, Austria, † March 5, 1946 in Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian painter and illustrator. 
In 1884 he began an apprenticeship as a sculptor, however, changed in 1885 to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts to study painting at August Eisenmenger, Christian Griepenkerl and Franz Rumpler. In 1892 he moved to Munich, where he worked as an illustrator for the humorous journal the flying leaves. In 1911 he became a member of the Association of the Visual Artists Vienna.

more: Alexander Rothaug - Wien Geschichte Wiki (german)

The altarpiece has two sets of wings, displaying three configurations:
Wings closed - Outer wings opened - Inner wings opened