Vienna museum creates a buzz with nude men exhibit

Stokely Baksh and Nick Tann 0 Comment Art art, controversy, Egon Schiele, Ilse Haider, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Leopold Museum, Nackte Maenner, naked, nude, Pierre & Gilles, Tomislav Gotovac, Urs Luethi, Vienna, William Bouguereau

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Days before its exhibition debut, the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria covered up controversial posters that showcased soccer players exposing their more intimate parts after receiving numerous complaints from the public. The visual advertisements — along with a 13-foot full-frontal photo sculpture of a reclining naked man called Mr. Big — were part of a provocative campaign to tease the launch of the museum’s “Nackte Manner” (Naked Men) exhibition.

“Previous exhibitions on the theme of nudity have mostly been limited to female nudes,” according to the Leopold Museum on its site. “Spanning two centuries, the presentation will show different artistic approaches to the subject, competing ideas of the ideal male model as well as changes in the concept of beauty, body image and values.”

The exhibition, which features some 300 works showing diverse and changing depictions of naked men from 1800 to the present day, runs until January 28, 2013.