Is it art? Racism? Political parody?
A painting by a white Cape Town artist, Brett Murray, depicting South African President Jacob Zuma as Soviet leader Lenin - but with his genitals exposed - has caused a storm of controversy. Zuma and the ruling African National Congress have sued the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg to force it to take down the work.
The painting, "The Spear," sold for more than $17,000 before the exhibition "Hail to the Thief II" opened May 10.
"It's rude, it's crude, it's disrespectful, it's racist," ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said Monday of the painting. Had a white man been depicted, the reaction would have been quite different, Mantashe contended at a news conference.
"We have not outgrown racism in our 18 years."
Zuma, who in 2009 sued a cartoonist for depicting him raping the blindfolded figure of justice, argues the work violates his constitutional right to privacy and dignity. (The 2009 case has not been decided.)
Zuma has lodged an urgent application to the High Court to have "The Spear" taken down, saying he felt shocked, offended and personally violated when shown a copy of the painting.
The court will have to weigh two sections of the constitution: one guaranteeing freedom of speech and another protecting the individual right to dignity and privacy.
Zuma is also taking legal action to force City Press, a South African newspaper, to remove a copy of the painting from its website.
"In particular, the portrait depicts me in a manner that suggests that I am a philanderer, a womanizer and one with no respect. It is an undignified depiction of my personality and seeks to create doubt about my personality in the eyes of my fellow citizens, family and children," Zuma argues in an affidavit to the court. "In terms of the theme of the exhibition, my portrait is meant to convey a message that I am an abuser of power, corrupt and suffer political ineptness."
The painting also has been condemned by trade unions, the Black Management Forum, the South African Students' Congress and others.
Murray, who is based in Cape Town, declined a Los Angeles Times request for an interview. A Goodman Gallery spokeswoman, Lara Koseff, said Monday that Murray preferred to "let the art speak for itself." She said Murray wanted debate about the painting to be focused on the work, not on him.
The gallery is contesting the action, arguing that it has a right to decide on what artwork it displays.
Koseff said representatives of the Film and Publications Board, which makes decisions on censorship of material deemed indecent, visited the gallery Monday to view the painting.
In the wake of the controversy, the gallery has posted security guards at its doors.
Murray's exhibition is a satire on South Africa's "predator elite," offering a blunt commentary of ruling party corruption and the party's socialist origins.
One work, based on a poster from the liberation struggle, depicts blacks demanding not political and economic freedoms but "Chivas, BMW's (sic) and bribes." A Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky label appears with the slogan "Forward comrades!" A Soviet poster of Stalin is labeled "tribal elder."
"This body of satirical work continues his acerbic attacks on abuses of power, corruption and political dumbness seen in his 2010 Cape Town show Hail to the Thief," says the gallery's description of the exhibition. "In this sequel show, Murray's bronzes, etchings, paintings and silk-screens form part of a vitriolic and succinct censure of bad governance and are his attempts to humorously expose the paucity of morals and greed within the ruling elite."
In his youth, Murray was active in the anti-apartheid struggle.
A colleague, Mike van Graan, executive director of the African Arts Institute, who worked with Murray on a 1986 cultural festival banned by the apartheid government as a threat to national security, wrote in the Cape Times on Monday that Murray was not the first anti-apartheid activist to become disillusioned with the ruling elite.
"Ironically, it is further testimony to just how far we have strayed from the ideal of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and pro-poor society that Murray has attracted such vitriol and threats because he happens to have a white skin," wrote Van Graan. "It is not the role of artists to be praise singers for any political, economic or social entity, but rather to speak truth to power."
The painting is scheduled to remain on display until June 16.
Jacob Zuma 'The Spear' painting defaced ahead of court action - Daily Telegraph
The men are due to appear before magistrates on Friday.
Mr Zuma will tomorrow bring a court action against a Johannesburg gallery for displaying a painting of the president with his genitals exposed.
The African National Congress wants the Goodman Gallery to remove a painting of Mr Zuma called "The Spear" as well as another work that has a "For Sale" sign superimposed over the party logo.
The picture of Mr Zuma is a facsimile of a famous poster of communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. In the red, black and yellow drawing, the president is depicted as striking Lenin's heroic stance, except his genitals hang outside of his trousers.
The works are part of a collection called "Hail to the Thief" and are meant to question whether the century-old African National Congress has lost its moral compass.
Although freedom of speech is protected in South Africa, the ANC believes that the "vulgar" painting is an exception to the rule.
In a legal affidavit, Mr Zuma states that he "felt personally offended and violated".
It adds: "The continued display of the portrait is manifestly serious and has the effect of impugning my dignity in the eyes of all who see it. In particular, the portrait depicts me in a manner that suggests that I am a philanderer, a womaniser and one with no respect. It is an undignified depiction of my personality and seeks to create doubt about my personality in the eyes of my fellow citizens, family and children.
"In terms of the theme of the exhibition, my portrait is meant to convey a message that I am an abuser of power, corrupt and suffer political ineptness."
The collection takes a provocative look at ANC heroes and highlights public perception that there is growing corruption in government, with officials abusing positions to amass wealth.
Other works include a Soviet-style poster reading: "The Kleptocrats" and "We demand Chivas, BMW's and Bribes".
The images play to concerns raised by international investors and the ANC's governing partner, labour federation COSATU, which has said South Africa is becoming a "predator state" for sale to the highest bidder.
"We are not going to remove the images for the sake of defending the artist's right to freedom of expression and for the sake of upholding the gallery's reputation," said Lara Koseff who works at the gallery.
Since coming into office in 2009, Mr Zuma has been widely regarded as unimpressive on the policy front, while making headlines with his colourful personal life.
The president has been married six times and fathered 21 children. He faces a race for re-election as the party leader at the end of this year.
Lisbon shopping guide: hide and chic - Daily Telegraph
On Rua do Loreto, I step inside the wood-panelled Casa das Velas do Loreto (in the same family since 1789) and find tall, honey-scented ecclesiastical candles for £15. At A Vida Portuguesa, on Rua Anchieta, my heart quickens at the fine Portuguese soaps and beautifully-packaged tinned sardines. Junk stalls in the Estrela park yield some irresistibly touching, framed black-and-white family photographs from the 1930s, costing a few euros each. Exploring the new waterfront design area, Santos, provides a satisfying few hours.
Back on Rossio, at the the 120-year-old Chapelaria Azevedo Rua, I finger a handmade man's fedora for £57 – the double of one I swear I saw on Jermyn Street at £120. I postpone checking out handmade riding boots at Vitorino de Sousa on Rua dos Correeiros. And it is just as well that, before I hit the antique shops of Rua de São Bento, I meet the art-restorer owner of the new Palacete Chafariz del Rei boutique hotel, a 1906 mansion he renovated. "Lisbon has great antique stores," he says, "but so does Oporto – and 50 per cent cheaper." So it's advisable to take a large suitcase there? "A van!" he says with a grin, and points to a beautiful 1920s leather sofa and chair bought for £170.
How to do it
When to go
Any time, but May is best: it's not too hot, the purple jacaranda is in blossom, and you can take a 30-minute train ride to the beaches at Cascais – home now to the Casa das Histórias, showing the surrealist work of Portugal's brilliant Paula Rego. Bear in mind that Sunday is quiet; only museums open.
Where to stay
On the outskirts, the Lapa Palace and Pestana Palace hotels are very grand, but all the chic new spots are central: LX Boutique, Inspira Santa Marta and, just off Rossio, the Altis Avenida (00 351 29 172 4307, portugal-live.net; rooms from £115), with young staff, black-carpeted rooms, a spa, and a seventh-floor roof terrace brasserie. For more information, see visitlisboa.com and flytap.com
What to do
Pack flat shoes: you will walk a lot. On arrival, get the Convida Lisboa shopping guides, free at all hotels, and a three-day Lisboa Card (£28) for the trams, Metro and buses. In bustling Baixa, see the new Mude design museum (mude.pt); in Chiado, old shops; in Principe Real, new design stores, cool cafés such as Orpheu, and boutiques such as Kolovrat (lidijakolovrat.org) at Rua Dom Pedro V 79, for witty printed silk scarves and spider-web silver necklaces costing £330. Go to Bairro Alto at night, for the bars, and medieval Alfama for almost hilariously mournful fado. Hottest area: waterfront, ex-industrial Santos, buzzing with lifestyle stores, bars and restaurants; see LX Factory (lxfactory.com) and Ler (lerdevagar.com).
Where to eat and drink
Have cocktails at new, glass-walled Le Chat (00 351 91 779 7155) at Jardim 9 de Abril. Have dinner at rough-chic 560 (00 351 21 346 8317, restaurante560.com) at Rua das Gáveas 78: wild mushrooms in Azores cheese, swordfish with banana, then pineapple carpaccio with coriander sauce. Finish at the new Sol e Pesca bar (00 351 21 346 7203) at Rua Nova do Carvalho 44.
A painting that ridicules South Africa’s president is defaced - Washington Post
“The portrayal has ridiculed and caused me humiliation and indignity,” Zuma contended in an affidavit filed Tuesday with the South Guateng High Court in Johannesburg.
Presiding over the hearing in a courtroom a few kilometers (miles) from the gallery, Judge Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane said the full three-judge bench should hear the case because national interest and the constitutional issues are at stake. South Africa’s constitution protects the right to dignity as well as to freedom of expression. She said the hearing would recommence on Thursday.
Zuma and the ANC sought to have the painting, titled “The Spear,” removed from the Goodman Gallery and to stop the newspaper City Press from displaying a photo of it on its website.
Around the time of the hearing, two men wielding cans of red and black paint calmly walked up to the painting hanging on the wall in the gallery and took turns defacing it.
“Now it’s completely and utterly destroyed,” said Iman Rappetti, a reporter for a South African TV channel who happened to be on the scene at the time as her camera rolled.
Her channel showed a man in a tweed jacket painting a red X over the president’s genital area and then his face. Next, a man in a hoodie smeared black paint over the president’s face and down the painting with his hand. The men were finally detained by gallery staff — one was head-butted and thrown to the ground before he was handcuffed — and police took them away.
Rappetti said she initially thought the first man was part of a performance art piece, and said staff at the gallery was slow to react.
The Goodman had said in a statement a day earlier that it was stepping up security. After the vandalism the gallery was closed as a throng of reporters and onlookers gathered outside.
The gallery’s attorney, Greg Palmer, said its owners are filing a charge of malicious damage to property. He said they did not know the identities of the two men who defaced the painting and that the gallery would oppose efforts by police to confiscate the defaced painting as evidence.
After the painting was defaced, a third man spray-painted the first three letters of the word “respect” on a wall near the gallery’s front gate before he was taken away by police. He shouted that the gallery had shown the president disrespect.
Freedom of expression, right to dignity at issue in painting of S. African president - Sun Sentinel
The controversial portrait of South African President Jacob Zuma painted by Brett Murray stands defaced at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday May 22, 2012. Footage shown on a national news station showed a man in a suit painting a red X over the president's genital area and then his face. Next a man in a hoodie rubbed black paint over the president's face and down the painting with his hands. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) (Jerome Delay, AP / May 22, 2012)
Painting upside down is a method applied by artist exhibiting in Wirral - wirralnews.co.uk
May 23 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News
PAINTING upside down is one of the methods used by an artist who is exhibiting her work in Wirral.
Beautiful landscape oil paintings are being brought to the borough by artist Jo Jenkins.
To help achieve the desired effect in her paintings, the retired art teacher applies a plaster based white paint called gesso to build up layers to create texture and depth in her ethereal, atmospheric scenes.Š
Jo’s inspiration comes from her travels, and this particular exhibition has scenes taken from drawings she has made from her visits to Ness Gardens, Kent and Woldgate in east Yorkshire.
Her work, entitled Exhibition of Landscape Paintings, is now on display at Dee Fine Arts in Heswall until June 30.
Jo told the News: “There are 12 paintings in the exhibition and they have a landscape theme.
“I use gesso because it has great drying qualities and it builds up layers on canvas before I paint. Some marks can be made accidentally and suggest ways in which I can work with oil paint.
“My drawings are very loose and I often paint upside down so the balance of the shapes are pleasing to me.
“I work on five or six paintings at the same time so it gives me time to come back to a painting and look at it in a different way. It can take a long time until I know it is finished.
“I visited Ness Gardens the other month and went to the bottom end and did some drawings, then painted from those.
“I love painting and I have more time since I retired four years ago.”
Jo has always painted throughout her career, which has evolved to taking an interest in landscapes.
Jo, from Chester, added: “In the past I have done abstract paintings but I fancied a change and began doing landscapes. At times I dip here and there to do different things.
“I am always inspired by seeing other art exhibitions, the last one was David Hockney’s in London.”
The gallery is open from 9.30am-5pm, Monday-Saturday to view Jo’s work.
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