Wednesday 3 January 2018

Utah Education and the Taliban


This is an eyebrow-raising story from the US, which puts some comments in the US media on the  destruction by Islamicist of elements of the cultural partimony they find offensive int a bit of perspective. A parent called police after discovering that a teacher showed nude paintings by Modigliani and Ingres during an art history lesson (Sarah Cascone, 'Utah Elementary School Fires Art Teacher for Showing Students ‘Pornographic’ Paintings' ArtNet News January 2, 2018). Utah art teacher Mateo Rudea was fired by a Utah School after parents objected to his showing sixth-grade (ages 11–12) students post cards of historical paintings, four of which included nudity (Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Amedeo Modigliani, Francois Boucher, and Agnolo Bronzino), They
were part of a set of postcards that depicted 100 art-historical works, reproduced by Phaidon and called the Art Box. It had been purchased as a teaching tool by the school some years ago, [...] [and] features Leonardo da Vinci‘s Mona Lisa and other famous works by Paul Klee, Claude Manet, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Gauguin, J.M.W. Turner, and Vincent van Gogh.  [...] After students spotted the nudes, Rueda took back the cards in question and explained to the class that “‘when you grow up, you’re going to find yourselves going to museums or to places where unavoidably there’s going to be nudity.'”
Or in the bathroom. And just think, such 'pornography' is being openly sold by Amazon with no warning that its only for adults or contains 'explicit images'.

Some parents complained of “classroom pornography” and, within days, Rueda was suspended and then asked to resign. He refused, and was promptly fired.
 An anonymous complaint from a parent also brought the Cache County Sheriff’s Office to the scene. At the school, principal Jeni Buist was found destroying the pictures of nude works from the Art Box and other publications in the school library. 

Rueda said he will appeal his termination. 
“I explained to the whole class that art can sometimes show images that are not always comfortable to all, that art is better understood when placed in its proper context, that the human body is often portrayed in art, and that the images in the school collection are icons of art history and a patrimony of humanity.” As of press time, Rueda, principal Buist, country school district human resources director Kirk McRae, and sheriff Jensen had not responded to artnet News’s request for comment.
Probably out somewhere destroying more images in case kids will see them.

Utah parents, how many have taken their kids to a proper art museum,
or even sat down with them to look through an art book? How many even have one?




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