Looks like Catholic League president Bill Donohue and Andres Serrano's controversial "Piss Christ" photo will just never work it out; Donohue, an outspoken critic of the photo was apparently denied entry to the Midtown gallery displaying the piece Thursday night, right after holding anti-"Piss Christ" news conference outside.
Donohue has been an outspoken critic of Serrano's photo, which features a crucifix submerged in urine, likening the Obama administration's shocking disinterest in the private Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art gallery's display of the photo to an "all-out war" on Christians, and even going so far as to make his own pretty art featuring an Obama bobble head in a jar with Play-Doh faux-feces. But just because Donohue doesn't like "Piss Christ" doesn't mean he doesn't want to see it, and he's not too happy about being shut out of the exhibition.
According to Donohue's version of events, he was "talking to the media" outside the gallery's building at 37 W. 57th St, and then went into the lobby, where security guards prevented him from entering the gallery itself. "No one else was barred from entering the gallery. Just me," he wrote on the Catholic League's blog. But a representative from the gallery, Dini von Mueffling, told the Times that Donohue and a few of the 30 or so people who showed up to the news conference tried to force their way in. The gallery has previously said they've stepped up security because of the photograph, which was vandalized at a French gallery last year.
Will Bill Donohue ever get to see "Piss Christ"? And will we be blessed with the opportunity see the Obama bobble head on display at its own exhibition (Whitney Biennial, anyone?) Stay tuned!
