Some Swedes find certain types of art offensive. And they take action. They remove it, change it, or vandalize it. Here are four examples.
1. Recently, the Swedish parliament removed this painting by the baroque artist G E Schröder
because it "offended feminists and Muslims".
2. A few years ago, a group of Swedish vandals smashed the photographs in an exhibition "History of Sex" by the New York Artist Andres Serano in an art gallery in Lund. While destroying the photographs, they shouted “we don’t support this,” plus an expletive. A woman tried to stop them but was frightened by the axes carried by the perpetrators.
3. A couple of years ago, when it was decided that some pedestrian crossing signs should be changed to female one, some Swedes found the female clip art too offensive (it had short skirt and pointed breasts) and replaced it by another female with shorter breasts and longer skirt. Full report on this in my previous posting.
4. Recently, I was told that some people removed some lovely portraits of 18th c. astronomers (like Celsius) from the department of astronomy at Uppsala University because they were men. According to those who removed the paintings, there should have been women too. Unfortunately, there were no women professors 2 centuries ago.
1. Recently, the Swedish parliament removed this painting by the baroque artist G E Schröder
2. A few years ago, a group of Swedish vandals smashed the photographs in an exhibition "History of Sex" by the New York Artist Andres Serano in an art gallery in Lund. While destroying the photographs, they shouted “we don’t support this,” plus an expletive. A woman tried to stop them but was frightened by the axes carried by the perpetrators.
3. A couple of years ago, when it was decided that some pedestrian crossing signs should be changed to female one, some Swedes found the female clip art too offensive (it had short skirt and pointed breasts) and replaced it by another female with shorter breasts and longer skirt. Full report on this in my previous posting.
4. Recently, I was told that some people removed some lovely portraits of 18th c. astronomers (like Celsius) from the department of astronomy at Uppsala University because they were men. According to those who removed the paintings, there should have been women too. Unfortunately, there were no women professors 2 centuries ago.
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