Frog King of Kings

Local Catholics in Italy's Trentino-Alto Adige, where the pope takes his summer vacation, are outraged that the nearby Bolzano Museum of Modern Art is featuring a sculpture by German artist Martin Kippenberger which features a frog holding a beer mug while being crucified. Their argument is that it's in poor taste, especially in a museum near where the pope takes his seasonal craps. While the whole pope angle doesn't really matter to me (no piece of art could be tackier than the pontiff's own ridiculous hats), I have to agree on the taste front--not because it's offensive, but simply because it looks like something you'd buy at the kind of off-color souvenir shop that sells t-shirts with naked torsos printed on them. The frog is supposed to reflect the artist's conflicted state of mind, but it seems more like a political statement executed with the kind of gracelessness and gaudiness usually only found in high school dance squads. More details here.