A South African newspaper has removed from its website an image of a controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed.
The Spear has been taken down "in the spirit of peacemaking... and from fear too," editor Ferial Haffajee has written in a City Press editorial.
The ruling African National Congress called for a boycott of the paper and last week went to court demanding the painting be removed from public view.
Protesters vandalised the painting.
'Tinderbox'The Spear painting - by Brett Murray, an artist known for his political and provocative work - has sparked a storm in South Africa.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest saying President Zuma's right to dignity has been violated, while supporters say this is a question of freedom of expression - both of which are protected in South Africa's constitution.
“Start Quote
End Quote Ferial Haffajee City Press editorThat we are now a symbol of a nation's anger and rage is never the role of media in society”
A court case brought by the ANC against the City Press website and the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, which exhibited the work, has been postponed indefinitely.
Nevertheless, Ms Haffajee decided to take down the image because the "atmosphere is like a tinderbox".
A City Press reporter has been prevented from covering a trade union meeting, copies of City Press set on fire and the editor and others subjected to threats, Ms Haffajee says.
"Out of care and as an olive branch to play a small role in helping turn around a tough moment, I have decided to take down the image," she said.
"That we are now a symbol of a nation's anger and rage is never the role of media in society," she said.
"For any editor to respond to a threat to take down an article of journalism without putting up a fight is an unprincipled thing to do, so we've fought as much as we could."
"It doesn't serve City Press or South Africa to dig in our heels and put our fingers in our ears," she said, adding that "the debate must not end here and we should all turn this into a learning moment, in the interest of all our freedoms."
The ruling party said the painting was "rude, crude and disrespectful" towards President Zuma and wants all images of the painting online and elsewhere taken down.
The gallery has said it will not remove The Spear, a $14,000 (£9,000) acrylic painting that had already been sold before protesters defaced it, daubing it in red and black paint.
The BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says the ANC has called on its supporters to march to the gallery on Tuesday.
In an affidavit served on the City Press newspaper paper, Mr Zuma said he was shocked by the work.
"The portrait depicts me in a manner that suggests I am a philanderer, a womaniser and one with no respect," he said.
President Zuma, who has four wives, has sued local media companies 11 times for defamation.
Some cases have been settled, others dropped, but most are outstanding.
The best-known case is a 2008 suit against one of the country's most high-profile artists, Zapiro, after he depicted Mr Zuma about to rape a female figure representing justice - this is due to be heard in October.
Mr Zuma was cleared of raping a family friend in 2006.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Of skulls, nudes and sketchy art critiques - The Guardian
Hang on a minute – Jonathan Jones wrote in his blog (15 December 2011) on the appointment of Tracey Emin as professor of drawing at the Royal Academy: "Emin is an outstanding draughtswoman." Jonathan Jones reviewing Emin's Margate exhibition (Artist Emin leaves the wild child behind, 26 May): "The suspicion that she is not after all a genius at drawing increases as she shifts from one medium to another … As for drawing, Emin is good at it only by the standards of a generation that preferred concepts to achievement." And in the same week, "as a longtime admirer", that he trashed Damien Hirst's new paintings at White Cube (Review, 23 May). Hmmm … not sure what I should be thinking now. Perhaps I should just ignore the professional critic and rely on my own instincts of recognising overpublicised mediocrity when I see it?
John Keane
London
• Damien Hirst should perhaps stop painting, at least in public but not necessarily for the reasons expounded by your art critic. Damien Hirst is compromising his creativity by allowing himself to be bullied by the snobbery and elitism so prevalent in the art establishment, that only painters are artists. So much bad art is produced by those skilled with brush, pencil and crayon, and artists should not be bound by the forms of past times. Mr Hirst must believe in the integrity of his expression, and the means by which he can communicate it most effectively, and not waste time and effort trying to please the intellectuals. They always get it wrong.
Chris Trude
London
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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