Art or blasphemy?

Pope Benedict outraged over sculpture of crucified frog — Geez, ignoring this sort of thing is a better thing to do.

A sculpture of a crucified green frog has the Pope seeing red.

Pope Benedict called the wooden sculpture, “Zuerst die Füsse,” which hangs in the Museion museum in Northern Italy, blasphemous. The work by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger features a frog holding a beer mug and an egg, its tongue lolling out, nailed to the cross like Jesus Christ.

Museum officials had previously defended the piece, stating the artist considered it “a self-portrait illustrating human angst.”

Two years ago the museum, located in the town of Bolzano, was embroiled in another controversy, over a piece of art that featured a toilet flushing while the Italian national anthem played.




  1. Mister Ketchup says:

    Jesus was traveling one evening and stopped at an inn. He handed the innkeeper three nails and asked if he would put him up for the night.

  2. Somebody_Else says:

    I’m outraged that people can use their belief in an almighty imaginary friend to criticize and censor others.

  3. Raff says:

    I’ll bet the egg is pickled.

  4. Matt Garrett says:

    And I’m outraged that because you think that Jesus doesn’t exist (even though history PROVES otherwise) then everyone must be trying to censor others.

    And what’s wrong with criticism? Dvorak.org/blog wouldn’t exist without it!

  5. tcc3 says:

    The Pope knows that people other than Jesus were crucified. Right?

  6. tcc3 says:

    I’ll bet he gets sore when Cap’t D’s runs a buy one get one free fish special too.

  7. BillM says:

    I wonder if it would be OK to hang a noose in a museum in Harlem and call it art?

  8. chris says:

    Let the punishment fit the crime. Nail him up, I say.

  9. lmj3325 says:

    “Always look on the bright side of life…”

  10. QB says:

    #4 Are you talking the Flavius Joseph document? Pretty sketchy and the paragraph in question is probably a forgery.

    There was a plague of messiahs at the time in that region, not to mention dozens and dozens of conflicting gospels about them. I am not denying you your faith, I just don’t think there is a lot of strong historical evidence for the existence of the Jesus described in the four gospels.

  11. Joe says:

    #5

    You hit the nail on the head.

  12. Ah_Yea says:

    Hasn’t occurred to these these guys that if they want this to go away, just say nothing?

    Crying about it just gives free publicity!

  13. stormcoder says:

    #4

    Jesus wasn’t considered holy until a pagan roman emperor declared him so. Until then most Christians considered him to be a profit. Kind of like the Muslims consider him now. Pick up a history book sometime.

  14. person says:

    but don’t they have a guy, who looks nothing like what Jesus would have looked like, on a cross that they have all over in their churches?

  15. thinker says:

    #11 Name one other person you know, who you think of when you see someone nailed to a cross?

    Reguardless of the fact that this was a way the Romans executed people, this guy knew it would taken and compared with Jesus. Don’t know if it was deliberate, but certainly blasphemous and in bad taste.

  16. QB says:

    The cross is the logo of christianity and this is a shot across the bow but the critics are overreacting.

    The main problem I have with it is that it’s crappy art. This just plain sucks and shouldn’t be in a gallery. A crucified frog depicting human angst? Yea, right.

  17. tcc3 says:

    Thinker

    Well, Spartacus of course. =)

  18. iamanasshole says:

    “Pope Benedict outraged over sculpture of crucified frog”

    Good.

    The Pope is irrelevant.

  19. eyeofthetiger says:

    I’d like to buy a replicate and put it in front of my toilet – beats the morning rag.

  20. Shubee says:

    Pope Benedict outraged over sculpture of crucified frog

    But of course the pope is outraged. That’s because he doesn’t have the political courage to remove pedophile priests nor does he dare reprimand cowardly and compromising bishops that tolerate professing Catholic politicians that aid and abet the abortion practice.

    What’s left beside speaking out against the secular culture?

  21. bobbo says:

    I just want to echo the fact that it is bad art, so bad that it must be purposefully intended to insult the church. THAT does kinda redeem it, but not enough to call it art. Drinking beer is a good thing, doesn’t raise angst in my mind, and pickled eggs can get used to.

    Pontification or posing? It was a test sent by god and the poop failed. He should calmly condemn the art as poorly done and offer moral support for the artist (if dead to artists everywhere) to find peace of mind.

  22. brendal says:

    You know, the weird thing I’ve never been able to understand about the Catholic church is don’t they realize that a whole lot of people OTHER than Jesus were crucified??

  23. Shubee says:

    #21. The point is that God’s own church is not supposed to crucify the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

  24. Jägermeister says:

    #22 – Shubee

    They prefer nailing the kids behind closed doors.

  25. Shubee says:

    #23 – Yes. The church today is far more corrupt than it was in the first century.

  26. Jägermeister says:

    #24 – Shubee

    That’s because the Christian franchise were still in its infancy.

  27. JLM says:

    christ was born, therefore we can have nothing depicting that either

  28. Mister Ketchup says:

    #23 – Jag, LMAO! How true, the pope should be outraged over the little boys being nailed by priests.

  29. Cursor_ says:

    An ex-hitler youth turned bishop of Rome is upset about a frog nailed to wood.

    This is the starting line of a joke right?

    Cursor_

  30. #20 – Bobbo

    >>and pickled eggs can get used to.

    “get used to”?? The love of pickled eggs is woven into our DNA. Innate.

    The only thing better than pickled eggs is a pickled lamb’s tongue. If you’re in a working man’s bar.

    My mouth is watering….


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