
Luca Teuchmann / Getty Images Contributor
Naked volunteers painted in red and gold pose for American photographer Spencer Tunick in scenes meant to illustrate the opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen" by Richard Wagner at Max-Joseph Platz in Munich, Germany, Saturday.
Naked volunteers painted in red and gold on Saturday recreated American photographer Spencer Tunick's interpretation of scenes from the Richard Wagner opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen."
The art installation, in Max-Joseph Platz, Munich, Germany, was held to mark the opening of the 2012 Munich summer opera season, according to information supplied with these photographs by Luca Teuchmann, a Getty Images contributor.
Tunick was invited to create the work by the Bavarian State Opera.
According to his website, Tunick has been documenting the "live nude figure in public" since 1992.

Luca Teuchmann / Getty Images Contributor
The Bavarian State Opera invited American photographer Spencer Tunick to create the photographs as part of the opening of the 2012 Munich summer opera season Saturday.
"Tunick's installations encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers; and his photographs are record of these events," the website says.
"The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together metamorphose into a new shape. The bodies extend into and upon the landscape, like a substance," it adds. "These grouped masses, which do no underscore sexuality, become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one's views of nudity and privacy."

Luca Teuchmann / Getty Images Contributor
Naked volunteers form up in red and gold columns in Max-Joseph Platz Munich, Germany.
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Everyone's naked till they put their clothes on.
That is a picture that we will NEVER do here in the US. Can you hear the right screaming and making it all political? It's nice to see that other countries are more relaxed about these issues.
irespond, are you just noticing that? the government is still in a tizzy about an inadvertant half second flash of janet jackson's breast years ago. tons and tons of taxpayer money has been spent on prosecuting the network for covering the superbowl when that happened. we have too many freedoms in the U.S. to allow such a thing! but, if you want to see guts and blood being ripped out of people and splattered onto the camera lens, just turn on any channel. believe it or not, most educated europeans actually know that women have breasts!
I never get invited to these kind of parties.
irespond: It has been done in the US!
bigpicture: I must admit that it was very humorous listening to all the talk about that one split-second showing of a breast, with a pasty on no less. I never cease to be amazed at how some, supposedly intelligent people become unglued because of human skin. It's like it doesn't exist because it is covered up and then when it is uncovered, viola, golly gee, I didn't know that was there!
Not sure if this is all related to God or not, but to the extent that nudity is equated with "indecency" then all I can say is that God is the biggest purveyor of indecency! I remember growing up and one of the phrases in Sunday School was "I'm special because God don't make junk." Well, I guess a lot of adults didn't learn the lesson.
get over it Big Picture - the government is not still upset over Janet Jackson. Remember Madonna's book? Who cares. Stop trashing the U.S. and try going to someplace where you really don't have freedom! Maybe one of those eastern European countries where they don't mind women's breasts because the consider them second-rate anyway!
Why are conservatives so uptight about the human body and so obsessed with sex? This is the natural state of human beings and was probably the state that we went around in for most of our existence (which has been MUCH longer than 6000 years). I suppose if God wanted people to be naked, they'd be born that way.
Sandusky is a conservative.
What? No close-ups? Only in America.
Kris1234 -- check out his website.
It's a rare individual that looks good naked. Be thankful these photos aren't closeups.
wje37fcsm Not everybody is fat and ugly.
This picture will never happen in the US because of the deep-rooted Puritanical concepts that govern everything, plus unfounded fears that children would be forever damaged beyond repair if they saw a naked person
avid reader, perhaps you should read some more. in fact, the fcc case against cbs to impose an enormous fine for the janet jackson incident is, indeed, very much alive, with appeals being prosecuted by the government right now. i live in several developed countries in addition to my homes in the united states, am very much a spporter of the united states, but i really woud like all of us to understand that we do not enjoy freedom as envisioned by our founding fathers simply because some politicians tell us that we do. we lose more and more freedom whenever we lose focus of the fact that we have been deprived of some.
Sorry people, but I don't think the government was ever really offended about Janet Jackson. It was the media doing what they do best, Milking the h*** out of a story until you can't take hearing it anymore. And I agree, most people look better in strategically placed clothes. More important anyway, not some creature roaming the woods. The red and gold pic on the stairs looked kinda cool tho.
I live in a very liberal town, and when they put up a statue of a young woman in a thin dress to celebrate women's rights, many liberal people complained because they could make out her nipples under the dress. It's not just conservatives who have hang ups.
So why was it necessary to make the statue seductive to celebrate woman's right's. Woman have fought for years to get men to stop just looking at us as sex object's and you create a statue that does just that.
Shut up, pro-nude people. You know, for all of you whining and complaining about nudity being natural, has it ever occurred to you that YOUR obscession with being nude makes YOU a bit unnatural in the same sense as the OCD censorship of countries like the USA? I mean, seriously, you talk about nudity being natural and not sexual and anyone that disagrees with you is a narrow-minded, purtianical bigot. Could you ever stop to think for one moment that it might be people like you that are just as guilty of those things in your own lives and that you are promoting your own form of puritanism, narrow-mindedness, and bigotry? I call shenanigans on your viewpoint if you disagree with me and I also declare that you all have even less of a social life than myself. Furthermore, if you want to prove me wrong, what you need to do is to log off of your computer, talk to someone of the opposite gender, set up a date, and get a social life yourselves. It is not that difficult for you to do here, you know, and ditto for the anti-nudity people, too.
Jake Darnell, if you find mere nipples - and under a dress- "seductive", then you are one inch from those who put women in jail for showing a bit of their hair. Women have nipples, so what ? Vileness is in the eyes of the beholder.
Having said that, I must express my disgust as this mass showing of cheese-colored skin. In the first photograph, they look like a bunch of maggots. I wonder if this vain attempt to sell more tickets will be successful. Rather than arouse my interest, it totally turns me off. I am not a prude, but this just looks ugly to me. Interesting that none of the darker-skinned Germans took part in this.
By 2020 the garment industry will have to sing for their supper !!
One can only hope!
i'm pretty sure I can see some boobies in here.... neat!
I can see a couple of dicks here
Are they from the pro-nude or anti-nude people? I consider them both to be equal in that department myself.
Who's singing opera?
Man, a lot of people want to get naked. :)
Well they don't want to show what is normal here in the USA, I mean the female and male body,and male and female together that is censored, BUT! if it had been one Faggot humping another,thats a different story YES give it front page viewing that is the new norm. trying to brainwash everyone into thinking that Homosexuality is all good, I say BS !!!
Was that supposed to make ANY sense whatsoever? You do realize that there are both naked men and women in that picture? Also, you seem to be spending a lot of time thinking about two men having sex with one another. You may have some repressed issues that you need to explore with a qualified therapist. Seems like you are afraid of facing something about yourself...
I'm on the internet every day and I have NEVER stumbled upon "two faggots humping each other", so you must be repressing the fact that you actually go looking for that sort of thing.
May you dreams come true...
..and I say that you're only saying that because you may have slept with yours, Vince-545056.
Sorry, that B was a little flat.
What's the percentage of people in the U.S. that are obese??? All that running around naked. Nothing to do with right or left, just pure UGH. No thanks. Keep you clothes on and keep your fat to yourself.
and putting a piece of textile on makes them less obese? It must be hard being you. Going around determining what is the "ideal" and criticizing those who don't meet your standard. It also means that you spend a lot of time trying to please everyone else trying to meet their standards of ideal. Such a hard life.
Actually witchrunner,
What RSB is stating is that he/she doesnt find the fat human body appealing to look at. Quite frankly neither do most of the rest of the human population if you look on TV, movies, books, most art, etc... Face it that their are standards in appearance whether or not you are readily willing to admit it.
actually, I do understand what rsb is saying. Using the same logic, I find that people who insist on telling others what to do is extremely offensive and they should keep their mouths shut. After all, people like rsb think that people have the right to not be offended, right? Somehow, I doubt rsb would extend the same courtesy.
witchrunner's on a mighty big soapbox!
Seems also that what you drive may affect general physical attraction, your weight and age. Seen that old bald guy in his vette lately? Or pink haired grandma in her Grand Prix? What about the high-school heffer driving her 'stang or Camaro? Obviously those folks think something is making them more attractive, younger, leaner, meaner or whatever.
Me? 40 pounds over my max weight scale for a 19 year old, and I don't wear speedos nor drive a 'hot' car. But I've still got my hair and damned happy about that at 65! I concur: fat & ugly needs to remain under wraps! :)
To each their own, but you would never see me flash my fat, ugly, carcass on front of a camera :)
With so many obese people in this country I am very thankful there is no public nudity.
I think the first thing I'd do if I were in a political office with power is to declare that everyone must not wear any clothes, weather permitting. After all, if government has the power to declare the wearing of clothes, and so many people seem to think that in America our freedom is very limited and that government should have that power, then they have the power to declare that people not wear clothes. No one can complain about that!
Are you a nympho slut, witchrunner?
Nudity: lame, overused, unoriginal. Next.
And yet you took the time to not only read an article about it, but to comment on it. I wonder why that is...
I agree, Bill. When a woman shows her nipples, there is another sensation ! Men are so predictable. For how many centuries have women shown their nipples ? SO WHAT ? Men have nipples, too.
Well did you ever stop to think for a moment that America's fetish for sexual repression might be a serious contributing factor in obesity and violence?
How long I wonder would we have to wait before the "red" tribe and the "gold" tribe start to develop a "racial" prejudice toward each other?
Are you aware that the greatest destruction of the ancient city of Constantinople - the center of civilization at the time - was caused by a sports riot between the "blues" and the "greens". (Nika riot - look it up)
(And they had some real competition seeing as how Constantinople was trashed by professionals on a few other occasions.)
This is totally gross. How low can human life stoop. If we were not meant to wear clothes, God would not have clothed Adam and Eve as they left the garden of eden. This is world perversion. What ever happened to human dignity. One more step towards the Armegedon and end times. The whole world has become one big whore...
Sounds like fun to me!
Maybe some tour company will develop a themed trip to Germany featuring a group grope like this.
God doesn't exist.
Yah! And if he DID exist, then he'd wear clothes all the time!
God would not have clothed Adam and Eve as they left the garden of eden. This is world perversion.
So, this proves my point above. You call nudity "perversion" The last time I looked, nobody was being born fully clothed, so I guess Adam and Eve had a contract with some lingerie manufacturer.
Yeah, kid, and if your christian GOD had truly loved you HE would have had you born wearing diapers. But of course, HE did and you did. Right, baby?
Chitta Nirmel, why do you waste your time online when you could have someone in your life? If you are a woman, might I suggest that you take the time to find a man and ask him out on a date of if you're a man to find a woman and do the same thing? I mean, wouldn't that be a more productive usage of your life instead of being so OCD about being nude and slamming people because of beliefs that you find as offensive? Get out, log off of your computer, and GET A LIFE! Thank you.
Adam and Eve didn't exist, and they never "fell". Your religion is a made-up fairy tale. Your loss, not mine.
Popeye Kahn - can you prove that ? And if you can't, what gives you the right to deny someone else their beliefs ? Huh ?
Nudity is only a big deal when people make it a big deal. This isn't sex, just naked bodies.
So true. The last thing that first picture is is sexy!
I guess you haven't been out on a lot of dates, hmm, engnenk? Someone who would post such a comment obviously has either an ego the size of Alaska or such an inferiority complex that they'd whore themselves out to anything, so which one are you?
thetruthteller, you seem to be the one with the hangup. Nudity is not sex. We are born nude -is that sexy ? If you get sexually aroused at the sight of a nude body, I would strongly discourage you from ever visiting a museum. Often, nudity represents openness, yeah, purity. Devoid of cultural attire, the truth lies in the nude body. None of those limp digits in those pictures speak of "sex."
michael henderson...please refer us to the most recent example of such a photo you've seen on the front page of a newspaper.
lillipop...you just keep on believing those metaphors are literal truth. It is, after all, a free country.
The folk who believed like you were standing outside of the ark as Noah closed the door...
Read some comparative religion then convince me there was a Noah and he had an ark.
Noah ...... hmmmmm .....
OH! You mean that old guy who got drunk and then got naked and started cavorting around with his own son?
(Genesis 9)
Again, God doesn't exist.
Oh! C'mon now! If God didn't exist, then who cursed Canaan for the sin of inspecting his old man Noah's junk? Hah!!??
(Remember kiddies. Always avert your eyes if your old man's junk is in view. God will curse you if you don't.)
Good naked, bad naked; THIS is good naked. naked naked naked!,
it looks like they are naked standing "up" close together skin to skin. that must feel great. no wonder why they wanted to be naked. what are they trying to representing? just wonder what people standing in the middle are doing....?
Nothing like group grope in the square to really get you in the mood for opera singing!
As in the last scene in "Young Frankenstein" ...
"Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I've found you!"
Good morning Porter; Young Fronk-en-shteen is one of this old couples favorite movies. Perhaps life would be much more enjoyable if people would LIGHTEN THE FRICK UP?? Don't see many fatties in those pics. If we all had to go around nude there might be much less obesity :=) Many years ago I devised a diet where every meal had to be consumed nude, among other folks and with mirrors around the table, obviously didn't catch on. Have a great day all.
One of my favorites ... Who can forget these lines ...
"What magnificent knockers!"
"Would you like a roll in the hay?"
They must have used a whole roll of tape and a couple of boxes of kleenex to make Terry Garr look that way.
I luked yer eyecon up awn yr cite. KEWL!!!!
Great Movie and who can forget I gor. Abby Normal.
"Puttin' on the Ritz!"
Frau Blucher.....
(frightened horses clamoring in the background)
They look like magots...
They look like "Chinese or Japanese figurines in a crouching position" ???
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Magot)
Please, get over yourself.
(and I'm not talkin' to Porter)
It's not our government so much proventing this type of exposure as it is the news media. I see many of you are commenting on Janet Jackson's cheap shot publicity stunt still being advertized, well that is the news media showing the same stuff over and over and over. The news media has WAY too many employees and not near enough stories. When they aren't re-running old articles they are making up stuff.
I agree. With as many employees they have you'd think there would be more investigative journalism.
I thought it was good art, myself- the contrast of a mass of simple, unadorned humanity with the sophisticated structures of civilization is a reminder of the fact that from nothing, we have built everything, and we did it together- despite our disadvantages as a relatively small, weak, and naked ape from the African veldt.
Of course, being male (and quite straight), I'm also extremely prejudiced: I've always thought the female form was among the most beautiful and wonderful achievements of a frequently dangerous and hostile universe.
This also attacks a bizarre American stereotype regarding Opera- given the healthy trimness of most depicted, it seems quite unlikely that we'll ever hear the fat lady sing again....
I consider it a scam and a waste of time for so many people. How do you like those apples, FeO2 Dreams? Oh, and by the way, you only say what you're saying about the female form because it probably hasn't been around you much in your life and if it had, then it had either been super thin or super huge. People like you are always the same. You never change.
man, i miss germany
Ach! Ich auch!
As far as I'm concerned, Germany remains the center of civilization. (Even if it is stained by an unfortunate history of militarism. Nothing is perfect. But they seem to have escaped from that disease in very recent history for the most part.)
I read a story about naked people in Europe (some of them painted, some of them not) & then I look down into the comments & most of what I see is, "the Government is Stupid! No the media is Stupid! No God is Stupid! No you are Stupid!" I am tending to think only that last one is right....
Agreed.
Hehehe.......I see boobies..........hehehe....
I got out my magnifying glass and really looked carefully !
I need a bigger screen with better resolution.
It looks like it smells.
So....it smells beautiful? Well...I've always thought so- but then again, I'm a pretty selective fellow...