'Pro-life' Britney Spears sculpture draws criticism

An artist who has created a sexy, "pro-life" nude sculpture of pop star Britney Spears giving birthhas drawn fire from several groups even before the artwork's exhibition.

Both pro-life and pro-choice proponents, as well as Spearsfans from around the world, have criticized the life-size sculpture, which depicts the 24-year-old pop star naked and crouched forward giving birth on a bear-skin rug.

Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston offers "a new take on pro-life," artist Daniel Edwards told the Associated Press Tuesday.

"Pro-lifers normally promote bloody images of abortion. This is the image of birth," said the 40-year-old artist and father of three.

The sculpture will be mounted next to a case displaying pro-life materials.

Edwards has courted controversy with his artwork before: last year, he created a sculpture depicting the head of baseball great Ted Williams (whose body, after his death in 2002, was placed in cryonic suspension in hopes that medical science could possibly revive him in the future).

When the Brooklyn gallery that will display the sculpture announced the upcoming exhibit, officials were soon flooded with complaints including3,000 e-mails in about a week.

Pro-life advocates "thought this was degrading to their movement. And some pro-choice people were upset that this is a pro-life movement," David Kesting, co-owner of Brooklyn's Capla Kesting Fine Art Gallery, told AP.

He added that the gallery would hire extra security guards for the two weeks that the sculpture is on display.

The free exhibit opens at the Capla Kesting gallery on April 7.

Spears, who gave birth to her son, Sean Preston, last September, has not commented on the sculpture.