The Milwaukee Art Museum on Thursday unveiled one of its most controversial exhibits. It’s called "Eggs Benedict" and it’s the portrait an artist made of Pope Benedict XVI, out of 17,000 high end condoms.
The goal of the portrait is to spur conversation about stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. The former pope suggested that condoms were not the answer.
"Eggs Benedict" wasn’t supposed to go on exhibit until November, but Milwaukee Art Museum Director Daniel Keegan says there was so much interest, it pushed up the date.
“We’ve had thousands of people come to the museum expecting to see the art work when the story first broke and have not been able to see it. And of course there have been many people who have been commenting about the work, primarily online, who are making decisions about the work without actually seeing it. So it just made sense. We thought to just put it out and let people decide for themselves,” Keegan says.
And people are deciding for themselves. Ellen Glaisner came to the Milwaukee Art Museum on Thursday just to see the portrait.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, and now that I’ve seen it, I am wowed by it,” Glaisner says. She says that while the portrait is well done, for her, it’s really about the goal of the piece.
“I like the way it’s done first of all, but I also like the fact that the purpose is to create and continue a dialogue about AIDs and the Catholic Church,” Glaisner says.
From the front, it’s difficult to tell just exactly what the likeness Pope Benedict XVI is made of. The eye picks up on the colorful individual pieces, but when you walk around to the back, you realize the medium is stretched out pieces of rubber. Condoms.
Richard Kimball is a member of the art museum.
“Being able to view the reverse is important. The artist obviously meant for you to walk around to the back and look at it. It’s less realistic and more kind of expressionistic. It’s a little scary in a way. Someone in one of the commentaries said it was clownish,” he says.
While the response of people viewing the portrait was overwhelmingly positive, not everyone in the museum was happy. I bumped into a lady leaving who had no interest in viewing the work or publicly stating her opinion. She simply told me she’s Catholic and believes there’s already enough controversy in the world; she didn’t want to generate more.
