Santa in Dutch

In June of last year I blogged a little item about a giant, inflated ketchup bottle, designed by the American artist Paul McCarthy, that was part of an outdoor art exhibit in City Hall Park in Manhattan.  It was cool and funny and I liked it a lot.
 

Yesterday, for some inexplicable reason I was perusing a study of public art in Rotterdam and stumbled across this large bronze statue which is called “Santa Claus” and I learned that it was designed as site-specific and commissioned by the city of Rotterdam and it was by the very same Paul McCarthy of that ketchup bottle fame.  Its installation caused an uproar among the citizens of Rotterdam (and The Netherlands in general) and it got moved from place to place but it looks like everybody has calmed down and it is back in the plaza for which it was designed and the furor has subsided.  It goes to show that when you get used to something it just becomes part of the furniture.
 
That’s some Christmas tree you’ve got there Mr. Claus.  Interpretation of what’s art and what’s not is always with us, hey what?