LACROSSE, Wis. – Police discovered the partial decapitation of the “Hatched Blue Baby” statue from the southeast green space outside City Hall early Sunday. The blue head had been unstrapped from its six-foot around egg base and the face stolen. Officers removed what remained of the head was took it into the police garage. Can the back of the head be restored once – and if — the face is recovered? Police said surveillance video suggested a link to Western Technical College students. The campus abuts City Hall. The statue was defaced once before. In 2018 19-year-old who had imbibed too much ] at Oktoberfest pummeled the head – a “mugging” of sorts. The piece was restored and moved behind safety barricades for the following year’s Oktoberfest to prevent vandalism.
Auer profile
Wolfgang Auer gained an artistic reputation in his hometown, Friedberg in Germany north of Frankfurt. His focus is mostly bronze sculptures and fountains. He added resins and fiberglass to his media in 2007 when his daughter was born. “Hatched Blue Baby,” he said, was inspired by the anxieties of parenthood. Auer made several “blue babies” that have circulated widely Europe. Some depicted a baby hatching from an egg, several are in crawling positions. Art critics have seen the pieces as in a tradition of children symbolizing hope, love, new life, innocence, and purity. All of his babies have distinct blue skin, wide curious eyes, fully-grown teeth, and monumental size,. Mos Auer eggs are six feet across and the babies peaking up at nine feet. which give the sculptures of infants a physical and emotional power rarely afforded to small children.
Auer. Artist from Lacrosse’s German sister city Friedberg.
A mini-portfolio of Wolfgang Auer works
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U.S. art tour. Collections Manager Laura Stewart and intern Bridget Garnai unpack Auer’s “Hatched Blue Baby” at the Miami University Art Museum in 2016. It was the second stop for the work on a tour in the United States. It earlier at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, Ohio.