Ayanda Mabulu doesn’t shy away from the controversial, although many feel that he has gone a touch too far with his latest painting.

We’ve shown you a rundown of some of his previous artwork before (HERE), and his last real headline grabber was the Zuma / Gupta cockpit picture from July of last year (HERE and HERE).

You can relegate that to old news, though, because his new painting takes things to the next level.

Some News24 insight before we show you the image:

Artist Ayanda Mabulu has shocked again…

“It was highly upsetting for me to paint this thing. It was like bleeding through my nails,” Mabulu [said] as his latest work elicited a series of shocked tweets in response.

“I did it way before … the president did the reshuffle. As a citizen of this country, I know how things are.”

Right, here we go.

Trigger warning and all that.

For real though, you cannot ‘unsee’ this.

And go:

And there you have it.

Listen to Mabulu’s rationale before you shout from the rafters:

“Nelson Mandela is me, Nelson Mandela is you, Nelson Mandela is your neighbour. Nelson Mandela is everyone.

“He was hope, back in 1994, something to hold onto. The dreams of hope, everything Mandela and the people fought for were thrown into the rubbish by these people who did not care”…

He said the country was in the situation it was in because of people who do not have a conscience.

“Do we go there and create a nice beautiful artwork that is going to hang in Sandton? F*ck that. We cannot metaphorise bullshit here. It’s personal. It is f*cken personal right now.”

Mabulu said he expected the “culture card” to be pulled against him, and for critics to accuse him of being disrespectful about black bodies. He feels that it is the president who is against blackness.

“To be black is to understand the importance of your neighbour and to put your neighbour first.”

“Our black president died in 2013 (when Mandela died). And [Steve] Biko and [Thomas] Sankara have been reborn in us.”

I guess if you enjoyed the Zuma / Gupta lampooning you have to suck this up, because if we start censoring our artists we are on a slippery slope.

Someone else who agrees:

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has said that while it respects Mabulu’s right to freedom of expression, it found the painting “distasteful”.

“[We] appreciate that the public is offended by it [the painting].”

Maybe you want to channel the anger you feel towards our crooks up top into something meaningful – THIS?

Thanks, Ev

[source:news24]