Posted on 03/08/2008 11:05:06 AM PST by Pyro7480
DALLAS — Artwork depicting the Virgin Mary as a stripper stirred trouble while on display at a small Catholic university before the piece was apparently stolen.
The print was part of an exhibit last month at the University of Dallas that featured the work of students at Murray State University in Kentucky. Joanna Gianulis, a senior art major at Murray State, said she was trying to raise questions about perceptions of saints and sinners and didn't intend to be sacrilegious.
"How do we know that an exotic dancer is sinful?" she said. "What if she has the best intentions and strives only to help those in need?
"Many single mothers are in this position and that is another reason why I chose to reference the Virgin Mary, because she was another woman who was in a tough position and probably received much criticism because of it."
Gianulis said she has no digital image of the print. Others who have seen it say it includes a veiled young woman wearing pasties and a G-string with money stuck in it.
The display went up Feb. 8 and prompted complaints within a couple of days. University President Frank Lazarus was away from the campus in the Dallas suburb of Irving when it was displayed but went to see it when he returned.
Lazarus said he found the print objectionable but didn't remove it because of concerns about restricting academic freedom. Instead, he and other officials decided to put up signs warning that some items might be considered offensive.
"It was imprudent of (Lazarus) to leave it up," said Tom Lagarde, a member of the Class of '97 and secretary of the school's national alumni board. "Regardless of what the artist's message was ... the means she used were illicit, at least for Catholics."
Lazarus said he was considering further restrictions when the piece was discovered missing Feb. 14. Campus police are investigating the case as a theft.
Joshua Neu, a junior majoring in English and philosophy, was among those upset by the print.
"The university ought not display images that make profane that which the institution holds sacred," he said.
Jeanne Luthi, a senior art major at UD, said students need to see contemporary art, even if some of it is upsetting.
"People read (philosopher Friedrich) Nietzsche in the core curriculum, and that's fairly anti-Christian," she said. "It just feels like the visual arts are being held to a completely different standard."
Asked for her description of the piece, Gianulis wrote in an e-mail:
"The work is a black and white woodcut relief print depicting a scantily clad stripper wearing a veil and holding a rosary. Other details in the work are scrolls saying 'Sinner or Saint?' in Spanish and referencing the Virgin (of) Guadalupe, and also a snake, some white lilies, a pair of scales, and also a small image of a bar of soap opposite a bottle marked 'xxx.'"
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a revered image to many Catholics, particularly Hispanics who accept the legend of the 16th-century appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to a Mexican peasant. Dallas is a center of Virgin of Guadalupe devotion, and its downtown cathedral is named for her.
University president Frank Lazarus, in particular, has been criticized by alumni who feel he erred by not ordering the print removed after he got a look at it.
"It was imprudent of him to leave it up," said Tom Lagarde, a member of the Class of '97 and secretary of the school's national alumni board.
"Regardless of what the artist's message was ... the means she used were illicit, at least for Catholics."
Dr. Lazarus didn't respond to requests for an interview. But earlier he released a statement denouncing the apparent theft and acknowledging the school's struggle to balance academic and artistic freedom with preservation of "Catholic character."
"A number of mistakes were made, and there are lessons to be learned here," he said....
But Ms. Gianulis said she didn't mean to offend Catholics in Dallas or anywhere else, and didn't even know UD is a Catholic school.
The purpose of the print, she said, is to raise questions about who is perceived as saint and who as sinner.
"How do we know that an exotic dancer is sinful?" she said in a prepared statement for the UD art department. "What if she has the best intentions and strives only to help those in need? Many single mothers are in this position and that is another reason why I chose to reference the Virgin Mary, because she was another woman who was in a tough position and probably received much criticism because of it."
Catholic ping!
Guess the students hadn't a clue about Joseph.
So this justifies displaying her as an exotic dancer? There are so many characters that fit the description, the least of which is the Blessed Mother.
“A number of mistakes were made, and there are lessons to be learned here,” he said....”
You bet, and the first one is you ought be fired, you doofus.
The usual attack on anything religious or Christian.
It makes one wonder what vile perversities are being taught by the public schools and parents of the young woman who did this.
It’s a projection parade. They claim apostles were high on drugs, Holy Mother was a stripper. One atheist said once - people always make religion in their own image. It seems he was just making an observation looking at the those around him....
The artist is a student at a public school, not the private religious institution (where the work was to be on exhibit).
The same STATE that is prohibited from promoting my religious beliefs in Christianity is also prohibited from SLURRING my religious beliefs.
The left does not see it this way. A jar of urine with a crucifix in it and a profane name can be federally funded but do not try to get them to use such funds to create a positive portrayal.
I don't really need a sarcasm alert, do I?
“Many single mothers are in this position and that is another reason why I chose to reference the Virgin Mary, because she was another woman who was in a tough position and probably received much criticism because of it.”
Mary wasn’t single and she wasn’t a floozy.
Jesus did not turn His back on prostitutes or tax collectors but He did not praise their careers either.
Why didn’t this young head full of mush make Mary a tax collector?
To the erstwhle artist:
yawn...that angry young artist thingie is over 100 years old. And your work is clearly derivative.
How ‘bout a giant picture of Mohammad stripping??? Make sure it gets on the internet along with pictures of the artists, their names, addresses and phone numbers. Then a caption underneath stating that “Islam worships Satan”.
That’s courage.
Of course, she wouldn't do anything like having a muslim woman doing a strip tease because the school doesn't want to be firebombed and she doesn't want to go into hiding.
In the final analysis, she's pretending to be a radical by claiming she's bravely standing up to someone who wouldn't do anything to her, anyway.
The young lady is saying this is a picture of a stripper ~ not of Mary.
The real question is why the President of this school is of the opinion that strippers are OK and Mary isn't ~ which is what it gets down to if you accept the artist's own idea of what she painted.
The use of the vail(sp?) suggests this may be the Islamic view of things too, and the young artist could be in trouble with the Islamofascist fuzzy wuzzy guys ~ maybe they'll hold a riot for her in Mecca.
May I note for the record that Mexicans have no monopoly on Mary.
Most of the University's faculty, staff, and students aren't Mexican or Hispanic. They're Catholic, and the presiden't handling of this shows he needs to step down, particular since the University of Dallas has a reputation for being a conservative, orthodox Catholic school.
Moslems can and do take offense at this sort of thing ~ for a variety of reasons ~ and some of them will kill you for being even mildly "edgy" when it comes to depictions of people named in the Koran.
I'm sure the artist was unaware of just how risky this sort of art is ~ which is one of the reasons there isn't all that much of it.
Whose on the board who hired him? Why did those people think this guy would be a good leader for this type of school?
Maybe you should approach them.
Um... by definition?
University of Dallas was exhibiting the work of students from some sub-regional University of the Kentucky branch? Why?
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