A print from Murray’s 2010 Hail to the Thief exhibition

The now infamous Zuma painting, Brett Murray’s The Spear, has blown up all over the social networks today. The ANC has instituted  legal action against the Goodman Gallery, who received a letter from the ruling party’s lawyers this morning. The Spear will stay up – and City Press has also refused removal of an image of the painting.

The ANC has instructed it’s lawyers to compel the Goodman Gallery to remove the painting, as well as City Press to remove all images from it’s website, and for the destruction of all printed promotional material. Neither group has given in to the demands, instead leaving it to the courts to decide.

Brett Murray is not unknown for his politically critical art, such as this poster from his Hail to the Thief exhibition:

Two things have come from this gigantic storm in a teacup. Firstly, this is the best publicity that the gallery has ever seen, with numbers for the exhibition enjoying a big spike. The sheer amount of publicity is worth it alone. Secondly, the ANC has shown exactly how sensitive it is to criticism – that it is a group that doesn’t take kindly to mockery and can’t really laugh at itself. This is art, expression – it exists to ruffle feathers.

The real joke is if they had not kicked up a stink in the first place, this entire exhibition would have been a lot more under the radar, and fewer of us would have known of the existence of The Spear. This could have just been a funny email circulated among friends, which has now become a national fiasco. Well played.

Here’s a napkin, there’s something on your face. I think it’s egg.

The exhibition will be running until the 16th of June.

[Source: News24, Brett Murray]

All artwork used in this post copyright Brett Murray.