South Florida Parents Upset Over Nude Mall Sculpture

Residents in South Florida are complaining about a sculpture of a nude family outside a shopping center west of Delray Beach.

Parents of children who attend a nearby elementary school say the bronze statue is inappropriate, and the PTA president e-mailed parents Wednesday asking them to complain.

The sculpture, by artist Itzik Asher, and titled 'Journey to the New' is supposed to represent the journey of Russian and Ethiopian Jews from their homes to Israel. It depicts a family -- a father, a mother holding an infant and an older child by the hand.

The figures, located outside Addison Plaza shopping center, are larger than life and elongated and their nudity is present but subtle.

The work was previously displayed at other locations in the area but its anatomically correct figure is drawing criticism due to its new placement.

"My daughter has been joking about it," says Jeffrey Cohen, whose 6-year-old daughter attends summer camp at the nearby Morikami Park Elementary School. "She shouldn't be talking to me about this. There are 900 kids in the school that are going to be exposed to it when school starts next month."

"It's a figurative piece, somewhat abstract," says Richard Caster, who owns the shopping center. "It's natural and beautiful."

But Jamie Garroway, Morikami Park PTA president, says she finds it distasteful.

"Everybody has a different idea of what art is," says Garroway. "If this piece was at a museum I would not have a problem with it."

Still, Terri Pavals, a teacher in the school's summer program, says she hasn't heard any of the children talking about the piece.

"It's the parents who have been talking about it. The children don't really make an issue of it."

Asher's sculptures have drawn public scrutiny before. In 1995, the Boca Raton City Council made him cover the private parts of several of his sculptures with cardboard fig leaves until the city changed it's position weeks later and the leaves were removed.

But Asher says he's surprised that "there are still narrow-minded people that behave like children" when they see nudity.

"The style of the sculpture is nonaggressive and nonsexual," he says. "They are reading what their mind is telling them to read."

"It's more about this family's spiritual journey. It's not about Gucci or what kind of car you have, but about who you are. That's why my figures walk naked, but they are not naked in what they carry."

 � Copyright 2004-2015 The News Vault. All rights reserved.