Results tagged “chrisofili”

The NY Press's editorial staff quit over the paper's decision not to publish the controversial Mohammed cartoon from the conservative Danish paper/tinderbox. The Politicker broke the news and printed editor-in-chief Harry Siegel's memo; here's part of it:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions...

Continue reading "NY Press Didn't Want to Be Mohammed's Mountain"

- And why the cows came

Back in 1999, we were brand new to the city and, to be honest, we were far too busy clapping for subway performers and figuring out how to pronounce "Duane Reade" to think much about the larger politics of the city. At least until the elephant dung hit the fan that summer when Giuliani threatened to withdraw city funding from the Brooklyn museum for exhibiting Chris Ofili's black madonna in their show "Sensation: Young British Artist's From the Saatchi Collection."

Thelma Golden, Curator

Not quite the same, but along similar lines: Illegal Art, where you can find illegal DVD-R's of Superstar, Todd Haynes's movie about Karen Carpenter. Meccapixel has some monkey photos (marmoset, colobus) and Gothamist likes us some monkeys.

Gothamist recently noted that the renowned Tate in London announced four new-ish artists that have been shortlisted for the The Turner Prize. In past years, the brothers Chapman (Jake and Dinos), who were one of the many controversial artists at the Brooklyn Museum of Art's elephant dung-fueled Sensation show, were shortlisted.

The Venice Biennale, which runs until November, has an art blog, Blogwork. Contributors post about events as well as artists at the Biennale, and it just makes Gothamist wish we were going to Venice some time soon.

What goes around, comes around. Rudy Guiliani is being satirized in this painting by Zhou Tiehai that tips its head to Chris Ofili's paintings, by placing Rudy's portrait on balls of dung. Currently at the Whitney Museum, part of "The American Effect" exhibit, which opens today, it's one of many foreign artists' take on America. Giuliani famously showed his disdain for art when he tried to shut down the Brooklyn Museum's 1999 Sensation show because of Ofili's painting of the Virgin Mary that used elephant dung. Ah, the Whitney, trying to drum up their attendance with lightning rods. Gothamist is waiting for some hysterical coverage from the Post and Fox News.