It was reported that an art gallery in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg censored nude paintings over what organizers called parents’ concerns for children.The five-day art exhibition displayed a painting of the naked Roman goddess Venus with a small curtain covering her entire body below the shoulders. Stickers were also strategically placed on two paintings of the naked Margarita from Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic Soviet novel “The Master and Margarita.”
Artist Vadim Tuzulukov said “In my 20 years of art exhibitions, this is the first time I have encountered this.”
“This gallery has been running for 11 years, and parents have in the past asked us to cover up nudity,” said gallery director Andrei Chaynikov.
The stickers were removed ahead of the exhibition’s last day, said Salavat Fazlitdinov, the gallery’s art director.The artists who displayed the three nude paintings were unaware that the exhibit was open to visitors of all ages, said the gallery organizer Valentina Kovalyova.
“We asked the artists not to remove the paintings because they are beautifully done, but to put stickers on spots that small children do not have to see yet,” Kovalyova said. Commenting on the decision to display the uncensored works, she said: “They are much more intriguing with the stickers.”