by Jennifer Dalton
Featuring the works
of PaintingsDirect artists. |
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"Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection" won't be coming to Australia after all. The exhibition, scheduled to open there in June 2000, after its controversial stints at the London Royal Academy and the
Brooklyn Museum, was cancelled by the National Gallery's director.
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"Walks in Berlin"
Ludmila Sapozhnikova-Dook |
The infamous exhibition has lived up to its name, causing a different type of sensation in three of its four venues thus far. (Berlin viewers were apparently unfazed by the show).
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In London, "Sensation"'s first stop, the Royal Academy was picketed by citizens outraged by the inclusion of a work by Marcus Harvey which depicts the British child murderer Myra Hindley painted with what appear to be children's handprints.
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"Elegia IX"
Johanna Boer
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"Modern Day Crucification"
Samuel Gillis
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Strangely, Harvey's work went mostly unnoticed at the Brooklyn Museum this fall, but New York Catholics, led by the city's outspoken mayor Rudolph Giuliani, took issue with Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary." Ofili's painting, though beautiful, incorporates beaded clumps of elephant dung and clippings from pornographic magazines. Ofili's own professed Catholic faith did little to calm offended viewers, but in the end, despite attempts by the Mayor to cut off funding, the museum insisted on staying open, citing First Amendment rights.
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According to Australia National Gallery Director Dr. Brian Kennedy, the decision to cancel the show had nothing to do with the content of the art. Instead, he cited conflict of interest issues regarding the partial funding of the exhibition by Charles Saatchi, whose collection is surely due to
increase in value because of the "sensation" stirred up by the show.
For more information on this amazing event, check out "Sensation".
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Read our archived Art in the News |
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