Museums Go Rear-To-Rear In Battle Of The Best Butts From Their Collections
William Etty’s ‘Male Nude, Kneeling, from the Back’ (1840). Image via Google Art Project (public domain)
The coronavirus pandemic has forced museums to shut down temporarily around the world, but the Yorkshire Museum took it upon itself to bring art into the digital realm with its Curator Battle series.
The museum will present daily themes for museums to go head-to-head with each other by presenting the items in their collections. This time around, it was the battle of the buttocks.
“Today’s theme is #BestMuseumBum!” the museum wrote in a tweet with images of a Roman marble statuette.
Thee M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art joined onboard with an image of bronze female statue created by Meila Kairiūkštytė-Balkus. The work, titled Elena I, channels a realistic female body rather than “idealized forms of a woman.”
The Andy Warhol Museum also contributed to the online battle with an image of Warhol’s 1977 artwork, Torso (Male Buttocks).
For some “floofy butts,” the Horniman Museum shared an adorable bum photo of two bunnies, Tommy and Bella, in the Animal Walk.
IT’S TIME FOR #CURATORBATTLE!💥
— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020
Today’s theme is #BestMuseumBum!
This cracking Roman marble statuette depicts an athlete at the peak of fitness! It may have decorated the town house of one of Eboracum’s wealthier residents. Has someone taken a bite out of this 🍑?
BEAT THAT!💥 pic.twitter.com/N3A6KYz339
#BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle @YorkshireMuseum
— M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (@CiurlionisMus) July 1, 2020
Throughout her life, Meila Kairiūkštytė-Balkus was interested in the topic of femininity, which is reflected in her work "Elena I". Her sculptures are naturalistic, seeking to convey real rather than idealized forms of a woman. pic.twitter.com/QJfmB9gg9z
Zeus’s bottom is always a real crowd-pleaser, too. This bronze cast of a statue of the Greek god dates back to c.470 BC, and is about 2 metres tall #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/t8TNdhwvhD
— Ashmolean Museum (@AshmoleanMuseum) June 26, 2020
In honour of our new most popular tweet here are some of our other #BestMuseumBum(s) that were on our shortlist. 🍑 (a thread)
— Aberdeen Uni Museums and Special Collections (@uoacollections) June 29, 2020
This cracker is from the #AberdeenBestiary, who doesn't love a weaponised bum? (MS 24 f12r) 🐂💩 pic.twitter.com/bmjCprvMWt
Another #CURATORBATTLE Etty for #BestMuseumBum today, this time 'Man Lying Face Down'.
— Scarborough Museums (@SMTrust) June 26, 2020
We like to think he's just been to the freezer and realised he ate the last Cornetto last night. And that he can't get the drawer back in and that the whole freezer needs defrosting ☀️ pic.twitter.com/7pJ9gfTVdN
Well, we don't want to be left behind. We think we've got to the bottom of it and this William Etty nude is the #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/ExrNw2vzaE
— Anglesey Abbey (@AngleseyAbbeyNT) June 26, 2020
We think this is the #BestMuseumBum! Andy Warhol, "Torso (Male Buttocks)", 1977, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. #CuratorBattle @YorkshireMuseum #AndyWarhol #warhol #art pic.twitter.com/lg3X9vnZlh
— The Andy Warhol Museum (@TheWarholMuseum) June 30, 2020
How about these bums of SUMO wrestlers in our collections? These bums were painted by Hokusai!! #CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum #おうちで浮世絵 pic.twitter.com/DH4rAyQ8Xs
— 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art (@ukiyoeota) June 26, 2020
We don't think you can beat these two floofy butts, courtesy of rabbits Tommy and Bella in the Animal Walk 🐇🐰 #BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/sSjWJFjBXz
— Horniman Museum and Gardens (@HornimanMuseum) June 29, 2020
[via Mashable Asia, cover image via William Etty / Public domain]
