Though the art at the Louvre tends to run to the classical—the Paris museum is home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, after all—contemporary works have been displayed in the Tuileries Gardens as part of an annual exhibition. One of this year’s selections has already been pulled, though, because, not to put too fine a point on it, the installation appears to show two statues fucking.
As The New York Times reports, the “Domestikator,” an installation from Dutch art collective Atelier Van Lieshout, was scheduled to go on view for the public on October 19. But after having another look at the 40-foot sculpture, which appears to be crafted in the architectural manner known as doggy style, the Louvre has deemed it “sexually explicit,” and has decided to pull the installation. “Online commentaries point out this work has a brutal aspect,” Mr. Martinez said in the letter. “It risks being misunderstood by visitors to the gardens.”
Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez explained the decision in a letter to Le Monde, referring to “online commentaries” that “point out this work has a brutal aspect. It risks being misunderstood by visitors to the gardens.” The fact that “Domestikator” rears over a children’s playground didn’t sit well either. But Atelier Van Lieshout founder Joep van Lieshout isn’t just bending over; when asked about the decision by the Times, he says “this is something that should not happen. A museum should be an open place for communication. The task of the museum and the press is to explain the work.”
This is the second such fornicating-in-art controversy at the Louvre in the last decade—back in 2012, Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye’s Suppo came under fire for appearing to be giving it to the I.M. Pei pyramid. And Delvoye also had a bronze hunting sculpture on display which showed a couple of deer mid-coitus.