League of Pure American Decency

[prole]

...is at it again. Give it up straight, white Nazi freaks!

 

Boehner and Cantor Call for Closing of Smithsonian Exhibit

 

House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) and incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Tuesday called for the dismantling of an exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery after they learned that it contains video of a Jesus statue with ants crawling on it, as well as works of art with strongly sexual themes.

 

Titled "Hide/Seek," the exhibit is slated to run from Oct. 30 to Feb. 13. The conservative website CNS News.com first alerted the two Republican leaders to its content.

 

Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said, "Smithsonian officials should either acknowledge the mistake and correct it, or be prepared to face tough scrutiny beginning in January when the new majority in the House moves [in]." He later clarified that Boehner wanted the exhibit "cancelled."

 

Cantor demanded that the exhibit be "pulled," calling it "an outrageous use of taxpayer money."

 

The #2 Republican in the House also took issue with the timing of the exhibit, which he labeled "an obvious attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season."

 

According to the Smithsonian's website, the exhibit focuses on "how art has reflected society's evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment."

 

Among the works are paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns.

 

Both Boehner and Cantor said the National Portrait Gallery could expect to face tougher scrutiny next year when Republicans take over the House.

 

"When a museum receives taxpayer money, the taxpayers have a right to expect that the museum will uphold common standards of decency," said Cantor. "The museum should pull the exhibit and be prepared for serious questions come budget time.”

 

In response, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian noted that federal funding is not used to pay for exhibits, only infrastructure, curating of works, and staff. The exhibit itself was funded by a group of donors and foundations.--from here.

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In related news...

 

Berlin to Display Art Nazis Considered "Degenerate"

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Eleven sculptures classified as " degenerate art" by Hitler's Nazis more than 70 years ago will go on display at Berlin's New Museum on Tuesday after being unearthed at a building site in the city center.

 

Among the surprise finds which date from the early 20th century are bronzes created by Otto Baum, Marg Moll, Edwin Scharff, Gustav Heinrich Wolff, Naum Slutzky and Karl Knappe; remnants of ceramics by Otto Freundlich and Emy Roeder; and three unidentified sculptures.

 

They are just some of the 15,000 works the Nazis confiscated from museums and private collections because they were considered "degenerate" -- a term Hitler's regime used to classify most modern art. Some of this art was sold abroad, but much of it was destroyed.

 

Of the six identified sculptures, four were featured replete with derisive captions in the notorious Nazi propaganda exhibition "Degenerate Art," which opened its doors in Munich in 1937 before touring Germany with the explicit aim of ridiculing modernism. The others were also banned by the Nazis.

 

Two of the works discovered -- Marg Moll's sculpture entitled "Female Dancer" and Otto Freundlich's terracotta "Head" were featured in the 1941 Nazi propaganda film "Venus on Trial," in which they served as an example of the kind of "degenerate art" Jewish art dealers sold.

 

Ursel Berger, director of Berlin's Georg Kolbe Museum, told reporters on Monday that the reasons for which art was classified as "degenerate" were "completely arbitrary -- it may have been because the figures were too fat, too thin or because they had a bulbous nose."

 

The sensational finds were made near Berlin's City Hall, where archaeologists began a dig in 2009 when the area was being excavated for the construction of a new metro line.

 

They hoped to find traces of the town's medieval history but got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across a metal object that led to the discovery of art which had been lying in the cellar of a bombed-out house for over 60 years.

 

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said he did not expect archaeologists would find "anything much worth knowing about" when they began the dig but was "very excited" when they did.

 

He said unearthing works banned by the Nazis was "a reminder of the darkest chapter of German history," for which Berlin had a "special responsibility."

 

But Wowereit added that the discovery was not only a testament to the "Nazis' destructive mania," but also "a document of resistance" because it is believed the sculptures may have belonged to Erhard Oewerdieck, who owned a property on the site where the art was discovered and was known to have helped Jews.

 

Owerdieck and his wife were awarded the honorary title "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, after the war.

 

Wowereit described the preservation of the banned artwork as a "late triumph" over the Nazis.

 

Archaeologist Matthias Wemhoff said a conscious decision had been made not to completely restore the sculptures, but rather to leave them covered in patinas "so that the fire's effect on them is still visible -- that way they are testament to their own fate."

 

The sculptures will be on public display in Berlin's New Museum.--from here.