No Shirt, No Shoes, Free Admission

Museums have to be creative marketing forces to remain visible in this Entertainment Byte Age. So, hats (and pants) off to the Leopold Museum in Vienna. Its current exhibition, The Naked Truth - Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals, offered free admission last week to any museum goer arriving in either undergarments or nothing at all. Pure genius, I say! First, because it was a wonderful publicity stunt that drew well-deserved attention to the 180 works in this show. It's hard to overstate the controversy these pieces caused around 100 years ago; the artists weren't merely displaying traditional nudes, they were displaying erotic nudes. (Nudes who looked to be capable of, or a few minutes past, doing Things. Shocking.)

And on a secondary note, it's been just as hot in Europe as it has been in the U.S. this summer, and the Leopold is nicely air-conditioned. You'd have to be hard-hearted, indeed, not to salute a museum looking out for both public education and comfort.

The Naked Truth - Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals is on display through August 22, 2005 at the Leopold Museum. Please double-check before showing up nude; it was reportedly a one-day deal.

Image credit:
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980)
Selbstbildnis mit Puppe, 1922
Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie (Jörg P. Anders, Berlin)
(Courtesy Leopold Museum Press Area)