LOVELAND, Colo.—One piece of art among an 82-print exhibit at the Loveland municipal museum is being denounced as “smut” by a councilman who is pledging to wage a campaign to have it removed.
Councilman Daryle Klassen didn’t get enough votes earlier this week to put the issue on the council agenda, but told The Loveland Reporter-Herald that he’ll keep pressing.
Members of a Roman Catholic church in the city 50 miles north of Denver have also objected to a 12-panel color lithograph by Stanford University professor Enrique Chagoya. What they find unacceptable is a panel they say depicts Jesus Christ in a sex act.
The work titled “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals” includes comic book characters, Mexican pornography, Mayan symbols and ethnic stereotypes.
“This is smut,” Klassen said in Tuesday’s council meeting. “It is pornography, and that’s not what our community is about.”
However, Councilwoman Joan Shaffer said there were no complaints at the Sept. 10 opening of the exhibit at the Loveland Museum Gallery.
“Right now we’re looking at one complaint,” Shaffer said.
Loveland, a city of about 66,000, is known for its promotion of art, including sculptures throughout the city in public places and art shows. The exhibit that includes Chagoya’s work features prints by 10 artists who have worked with printer Bud Shark of Lyons.
Chagoya couldn’t be reached by phone Thursday night and he didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail.
Susan Ison, the city’s cultural services director, said Chagoya describes what he does as being “reverse anthropology.”
“It is political, it is sexual, it is religious and it deals with racism,” Ison told Denver’s KUSA-TV. “It is very complex.”
For Krista Conley, the issue isn’t complex. She visited the gallery to voice her objections to Chagoya’s artwork.
“This is cut and dry,” Conley said. “This a sexual act being depicted in the artwork and it is not a gray area. It is very black and white as to what is going on in the picture.”
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Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald,
