Is Nudity Acceptable in Public Sculpture?

Recently, a sculpture called JOURNEY TO THE NEW by Itzik Asher has been making waves in Delray  Beach, Florida.  The abstract figurative sculpture depicts three nude figures, and represents Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Ethiopia.  The problem:  the sculpture is visible from the entrance of a local middle school, and the school's PTA believes that the nude figures are inappropriate for their children. 

The sculpture is privately owned, and resides on the property of a private shopping center, but the PTA is petitioning the city to force the owner to move the sculpture.  You can read more on this issue in this article from the Palm Beach Post.

Nudity is nothing new in public art, but is it appropriate? 

Take our poll here and give us your comments below!

Photo courtesy of Brandon Kruse/Pam Beach Post

Comments

[Ronald Bader]

As artist's we cringe at the thought of any type of rules or censorship yet a valid question comes to mind. Why are Jewish refugees nude? Their laws forbid them to show their nakedness to others and yet we have this sculpture having three naked people. If they are refugees wouldn't it have been an even stronger statement to have them dressed in clothing more in the vein of refugees? My problem with artistic license is that we do what we want to do and everything else be damned and sometimes we bring the ire of others down on ourselves just because we can rather than to make a better, stronger statement.

[W.L. Flohr]

And what's the percentage of middle schoolers having or experimenting with SEX. Are they dramatized by what they see everyday in magazines and/or on their parents TV set??? Get over it people. Better not take them into a 7-11 store where hey can see far more on the magazine rack...

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