The big brouhaha in South Africa these days is about the painting of Zuma (the South African president) which shows him in a Russian political poster style but most of all, in addition, showing his genitals.
In all honesty it is a ridiculous painting which does not deserve any of the attention it is getting.
The painting was defaced at the art gallery where it was exhibited and today thousands protested against it.
I had forgotten about the protests organized by the ANC (the ruling party in South Africa) until I tried to go grocery shopping a block away from the art gallery who had the painting.
Here is what regular news pages have to say about it:
CNN, BBC World News, the Mail and Guardian, Updated News and City Press.
And just like everything else in South Africa it has turned into a racial issue !!!!!
Here the point of view of a blog from South Africa which deals with political and social issues. Be warned they do have a representation of the offending painting. If it offends do not open the link.
From a much simpler and possibly naive point of view I would like to point out that traditional African art is full of naked bodies with both men and women genitalia exposed, exaggerated in some cases, and nobody would comfortably admit to being offended.
The Goodman Gallery, I always thought, is always trying to have provocative art on, often it seems that shocking people is more important to them than showing art. They are sensationalists. To me they come across as poseurs who think themselves as oh-so-sophisticated. Well they should be happy now, they managed to shock!
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