Artist Ottmar Hoerl was startled last month when prosecutors in Nuremberg threatened to charge him with violating Germany’s ban on Nazi symbols.
After extensive news coverage, the state announced Wednesday that it had decided to drop the charges, as his gnomes were intended to deride Nazis rather than promote them.
Story here.
Anselm Kiefer began his career in the 1970s with photos of himself giving the salute at sites of atrocities. However confusing such imagery is in contemporary Germany, the Nazis would have surely detected the mockery and ordered both artists shot.
Gnomes are always vulgar and almost always in the wrong.
Paul McCarthy, Santa Claus (Buttplug Gnome). Via
Webb, Gnome Installation (detail) Via
In Berlin a few years ago, I saw street carts selling Stalin kitsch. A cart with Hitler kitsch wouldn’t have had the chance to roll into place. What’s the difference? Not body count. Stalin’s might have been higher. Could it be because the Nazis lost the war and Stalin died in his bed (maybe with help from a few heroic individuals)? Only history’s losers (not necessarily history’s thugs) become real outcasts.
With good news for gnomes, maybe Charles Krafft can take his Hitler Teapot through German customs without getting arrested. Via
Be great to see these all curated together for a show, nice arrangement and post Regina!
“Gnomes are always vulgar and almost always in the wrong.”
You ought to hear what gnomes have to say about Art Critics!
British PM John Major’s Father was a professional maker of Garden Gnomes, and Phillipe Starck’s gnomes are friendly and lovable.
http://s2.thisnext.com/media/230×230/Philippe-Starck-Gnomes_CC286427.jpg
Personally, besides being a member of the Troll liberation front, I like gnomes quite a lot, and find them neither vulgar nor in the wrong. However, I take a very dim view of poetry.
can I get a nazi gnome with Dick Cheney’s face on it?