Art Controversy news at Art News Blog is a listing of all the posts that have discussed controversy in the arts, shocking news, and scandals.

Art Blog> Art News Categories> Controversial Art News

• Sarah Palin Nude - I know that many visitors to Art News Blog like nudes and politics, so here it is in one post: Sarah Palin nude! Chicago painter Bruce Elliott has come up with a novel way to get customers into his Old Town Ale House bar in Chicago with his nude Sarah Palin picture.
• Museum Plans to Buy Muhammad Cartoons - The Art Newspaper has reported that the Museum of Danish Cartoon Art in Copenhagen is currently in talks to acquire the 12 controversial Muhammad cartoons that caused probably the largest and most insane reaction to a cartoon that I have ever seen. More than one hundred people were killed in protests around the world (according to wikipedia).
• Orhan Pamuk Assassination Plot Foiled - Most of the posts on Art News Blog that mention the country of Turkey seem to be about artists suffering for their art. Like the Turkish author Elif Shafak insulting Turkish identity or the British born artist Michael Dickinson fighting for his freedom.
• Scaremongering Czech Artists - Ztohoven - A group of 6 Czech artists that call themselves Ztohoven face possible prison time after being acused of scaremongering and propagating false information.
• Politics and Art - George Bush - An exhibition of contemporary art prints at the New York Public Library has created a mild stir. The NY Times has reported that a number of library patrons have protested because of a series of 8 digital prints in the "Multiple Interpretations" exhibition called "Line Up."
• Women Artists at the MoMa - Jerry Saltz has published an interesting article over at the New York Magazine. Saltz asks where are all the women? (at the MoMa)
• Tate's Crack - People are Stupid! - Either people are on crack while visiting Doris's crack at the Tate Modern in London or they are just downright stupid. How could 15 people hurt themselves in the first four weeks of the "Shibboleth" installation by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo?
• Michael Dickinson's Turkish Court Case - The UK artist living in Turkey Michael Dickinson has had his court date moved forward to March 2008. Coxsoft art news says that Mr Dickinson appeared in a Turkish court yesterday, two police officers testified that they had seen the offending works displayed, and now the judge will consult with university arts professors on the matter.
• Salander-O'Reilly Galleries - Lawsuits Galore - Robert has pointed out an article in the NY Times about the art dealer Lawrence Salander and his Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. A judge has closed the doors of the gallery as dozens of wealthy clients have lined up to sue the high profile art dealer.
• Comments on Doris's Crack - In a recent post on Doris's Crack at the Tate Modern, I said that artists can sometimes ramble on a little too much. And that is fine if you feel like reading an essay, but it shouldn't be necessary to understand the work.
• Crack at the Tate Modern - Doris's Crack - The crack in the floor at the Tate Modern has swallowed its first victims.
• Artist Facing Prison Time in Turkey - Petition - Last year I mentioned that the British born collage artist Michael Dickinson had been accused of insulting the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Anselm Kiefer Work to be Removed - In Connecticut, a collector of the German artist Anselm Kiefer has been ordered to remove an outdoor sculpture by the artist.
• Art Forger Taking Advantage of Notoriety - The British artist Robert Thwaites is out of prison and looking to cash in on his new found notoriety as an art forger. Thwaites was sentenced to two years prison after he was charged with forging the work of the 19th century painter of fairies John Anster Fitzgerald.
• Animal Rights Artist Angela Singer - Being an animal rights activist seems to give the artist the right to use dead animals, in the same way that a black man can make black jokes. If Damien Hirst did this work we would just think that the old British artist is just being sick again. But because there's a message behind Angela Singer's work, I feel fine about it.
• David Cerny's Saddam Hussein - Cerny is an artist that enjoys getting a reaction from his audience. He is famous for works like his "Shark" sculpture, where a model of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Husseim is suspended in a glass box filled with formaldehyde. It's a tribute to everyone's favorite bad boy, Damien Hirst and his "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" work.
• For the Love of God but Cheaper - Damien Hirst's diamond skull "For the Love of God" might be out of your price range, but "For the Laugh of God" might be within reach. Sure, it's an appropriation and the diamonds are fake, but you'll save about one hundred million dollars on the price of it.
• Diamond Skull by Damien Hirst - I mentioned the Damien Hirst diamond encrusted skull being made before, but now it's finished and being exhibited at the White Cube gallery in London.
• Art Renewal Center and the Wonders of Clasical Realism - Marion Boddy-Evans of the painting blog on about.com has posted a few links to some friendly debate about the truth of classical realism and the evils of contemporary art. She made a post last year about the Art Renewal Center that created some colorful discussion on her comments page.
• Chocolate Christ Crucified - Coxsoft art recently posted this article about a chocolate Christ. It's a six foot high sculpture of Jesus Christ, made from chocolate. "My Sweet Lord" by the artist Cosimo Cavallaro was meant to be exhibited at the Lab Gallery in Manhattan over the Easter period.
• Damien Hirst Slaughterhouse - Neighbors of a proposed Damien Hirst studio in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK are not happy about the artist's plans. He has already been given permission to build an "art gallery, workshop and center of excellence".
• Damien Hirst Butterflies Controversy - Anonymous posted a comment on the Damien Hirst exhibition post recently, accusing Hirst of stealing the butterfly/stained glass idea from another artist.
• Banksy Painted Over - A Banksy work was recently painted over by rail staff in the UK, which has prompted locals to complain. Rail staff now have photos of work by Banksy, so they don't make the same mistake again.
• Proposed Jeff Koons Train Monstrosity - A giant Jeff Koons puppy might be cute and bring smiles to the faces of thousands of people, but a giant train hanging from a crane probably won't do much for people.. other than confuse them and make them think that all art sucks.
• Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Coxsoft reports that the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition was splashed with oil on the weekend. (there's a photo of the vandalized photographs at his blog).
• One Thousand Paintings Imitator - In a recent post I mentioned the Art Initials website, where the artist (entrepreneur?) is selling two letter initial paintings. I thought that the One Thousand Paintings artist and the Art Initials artist must have had a personal or working relationship, as the websites and the idea were so similar. But Sala from One Thousand Paintings says this is not the case..
• OJ Simpson Book Burning - The media mogul Rupert Murdoch has had a moment of clarity and decided not to go ahead with publishing the OJ "If I Did it" book nor airing a television interview with OJ Simpson. The famous (infamous?) former football player and actor was set to profit from the murder of his wife and her friend, with the publication of the book "If I Did it".
• Aboriginal Rock Art Saved? - The Western Australian government has seen the light and will no longer oppose the heritage listing of an area in the Dampier Archipelago, which will save some of the oldest art in the world on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.
• Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings - The painter of fat women has turned his focus to a more challenging subject recently. Fernando Botero is currently showing a series of works depicting the Abu Ghraib crimes at the Marlborough New York gallery.
• Another Art Teacher in America Fired - Relating to this ridiculous post yesterday, there's a New York art teacher that is currently fighting for his job after recommending that some of his more advanced students should take life drawing classes.
• Texas Art Teacher Sacked Over Nudes - I'm not sure if the nude incident is the whole reason behind the Texas teacher losing her job, but it's still interesting. Sydney McGee claims that she was fired after a complaint from a parent of a student, relating to a school field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. He was concerned about his child seeing "an abstract nude", which was a 4BC Greek marble torso.
• Hitler Paintings Auction - People came from all over to get a piece of morbid history at a recent art auction that sold 21 works "attributed" to the German dictator Adolf Hitler.
• Turkish Author Elif Shafak's Charges Dropped - The popular Turkish novelist Elif Shafak has had charges of "insulting Turkish identity" dropped. It was decided that the evidence was lacking and the prosecutor dropped the charges.
• Elif Shafak on Trial in Turkey - The Turkish novelist Elif Shafak will face charges of "insulting the Turkish identity" this week in Istanbul. Just a week ago the British artist Michael Dickinson was charged with "insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister", so it's probably not a good time to be saying or doing anything too radical in the country at the moment.
• Artist Charged in Turkey - The British born artist Michael Dickinson may face up to three years in prison for displaying a collage of the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dog.
• Thomas Kinkade FBI Investigation - Thomas Kinkade or the "painter of light" is reportedly under investigation by the FBI. It's not the first time the saintly painter has been in hot water though.
• Shit Art - Cloaca Machine - I was just watching a program about the Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye. It got me thinking about what art really is. It's a question that is asked so much that it can become boring even thinking about it. But his Cloaca machine forced me to ask myself what art is again.
• Fair Use or Copyright Infringement - Lile from Art.net has written about an artist/photographer friend that went to court over a copyright infringement and was told it was a case of "Fair Use".
• Fake Vincent van Gogh in Australia? - The National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia may have itself an expensive fake Vincent van Gogh portrait. British experts on the Dutch master have come up with a list of inconsistencies, which point toward the work being a forgery.
• Hillary Clinton for President? - No, artnewsblog hasn't become a political news blog. Daniel Edwards has created a sculpture called "The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America".
• Anatomy, Art, and Life - It's called Anatomy for Beginners, with Dr Gunther von Hagens doing the dissecting of the bodies and pathologist Professor John Lee (nicknamed the "Walt Disney of Death") explaining how we work in health and in disease.
• Art Museum Ticket Prices - There has been a bit of news around lately about the price of museum entry. The Museum of Modern Art charges $20 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has also announced that they will be raising their ticket price to $20.
• Replacing a Dead Shark - Perhaps his most famous work (The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living) will soon be replaced with a new dead shark. The work was made in 1991 and is already falling apart, the liquid is murky, and the shark has changed shape.
• Elton John Libel Payout - The Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom was recently ordered to pay Sir Elton John 100,000 pounds. The publication criticized his rude behavior at his annual AIDS charity ball.
• Mao Portrait by Zhang Zhenshi - The original portrait that was used for the Mao image in Tiananmen Square will soon go up for auction. Zhang Zhenshi painted the portrait in 1950 to celebrate the first anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
• eBay Art Fraud - eBay may be a great tool for contemporary painters to sell their work online as the paintings usually only sell for hundreds or perhaps a few thousand at most. So investors can afford to take a risk on the work.
• Ron English Billboards - I watched a documentary on the contemporary pop artist Ron English recently. He is probably most famous for defacing public billboards in America. He covers legitimate advertisements on prominent billboard with his own version of pop culture.
• Artists Sue NYC over Anti-Graffiti Law - A group of seven artists and the fashion designer Marc Ecko are suing New York City for being too hard on graffiti artists, claiming that their "constitutional right to free speech" is being violated.
• Joan Miro and Copyright Insanity - The Joan Miro logo that Google had on their homepage yesterday to celebrate the birthday of the Spanish artist was taken down early because of "copyright violation". The Artists Rights Society represents the family of Miro (along with a bunch of other artists) and asked Google to take it down because "It's a distortion of the original works and in that respect it violates the moral rights of the artist".
• Da Vinci Code Trial Over - A British High Court judge has ruled against the copyright infringement claims by the authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" against the Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.
• Britney Spears Naked Sculpture - A nude sculpture of the pop star Britney Spears clutching a dead bear rug has been creating a bit of a stir recently. The work by Daniel Edwards, titled "Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston" shows Spears naked, pregnant, and sensually bent over on her knees.
• Thomas Kinkade Trial - The Painter of Light's court case has been making a little progress. Here's a previous post on Thomas Kinkade and his "ritual territory marking".
• South Park's Chef Mauled by Bear - After the recent South Park and scientology controversy, with Tom Cruise protesting and Isaac Hayes jumping ship, I was wondering how the creators would replace the Chef, or his voice.
• Tom Cruise and South Park - Tom Cruise seems to be in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. It is reported that the actor and scientologist, Cruise has threatened to not promote his upcoming film (Mission Impossible 3) if Comedy Central aired an episode of South Park that poked fun of the "religion". Viacom (makers of MI3) is the parent company of Comedy Central (makers of South Park). Scientology seems to give people an attitude and rob them of a sense of humor.
• Freedom of Expression - I know that the Muslim cartoon controversy seems to have settled down and everyone is probably tired of hearing about it in the news, but I came across an interesting article in a Turkish newspaper by the Professor of Islamic Studies at John Carroll University, Zeki Saritoprak.
• South Park Bloody Mary Episode - Seems like everyone is either boycotting or protesting about something or other lately. Now that the Muslim cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed fiasco has settled a little, Catholic church leaders in New Zealand have decided to boycott a broadcaster for planning to air an "ugly and tasteless" episode of the South Park cartoon.
• Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest - After the insanity of the Muslim Cartoon controversy, there's now a new and improved way for angry young men to express themselves. A graphic artist from Dimona Comix in Israel has come up with the Anti-Semitic Cartoon contest by Jews, to make fun of Jews.
• Marc Quinn to do Kate Moss - Quinn has created a bit of a reputation for doing things a little differently. He is the artist that made a cast of his head using his own blood and the 3.6 meter tall marble sculpture of disable pregnant woman (Alison Lapper) that is currently on display in London's Trafalgar Square.
• Muslim Cartoon Controversy - The outrage over the publication of cartoons originally posted in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper has escalated into violence and destruction. Embassies in Beirut and Damascus have been torched by protestors.
• Michelangelo's David makes people go Crazy - According to a psychiatrist in Florence by the name of Dr Graziella Magherini, great works of art can make people feel anything from disorientation and queasiness, to temporary panic attacks, and even moments of madness in sensitive or cultured onlookers.
• Crazy Paris Art - An exhibition in Paris at the Bibliotheque Nationale has caused a bit of a stir, with the work on an insane man's ramblings that were carved into his floorboards. Plancher de Jeannot (Jeannot's Floorboards) is the bedroom floor of a schizophrenic French farmer, carved with 80 lines of unpunctuated text.
• Walter Sickert and Jack the Ripper - Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has pointed the finger at the German born English painter Walter Sickert, claiming that he is Jack the Ripper. Historians have labeled her claims as "far fetched" and "Circumstantial". Sounds like great marketing to me.
• Cartoonist Faces Prison for Blasphemy - Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer may be facing prison time in Greece for blasphemy!. Haderer was not even aware that his satirical book was even published in Greece, but has received a summons to appear in an Athens court.
• Blood Art - Art made of blood has been taken off Ebay. The online auctioning mega-portal does not accept the sale of human body parts, and classifies the works in this category.
• Artist Offended - An interesting post over at The Art Life blog, where an artist gets nasty over a little criticism. Sure I have been offended, possibly even hurt by criticism before but it was unconstructive and hurtful criticism, certainly nothing as mild as this.
• Duchamp's Urinal - Marcel Duchamp's ready-made urinal has been voted the most influential work of art of all time by 500 art experts. Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" and "Guernica" paintings must have felt a little peeved at missing out on the top spot to a toilet.
• Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play - More on the recent controversial Sikh play in the United Kingdom. It was cancelled due to the violent and disgusting protests by members of the Sikh community. The author of the play has also had several death threats against her and for now there are no plans for further perfomances.
• Sikhs offended - More artists upsetting religious authorities.. this time it's the Sikhs in the United Kingdom being offended.
• Relative of Vincent van Gogh Killed - I've heard of people being verbally abused or even imprisoned for their art, but being killed for your art is a little extreme.
  
• Beheading in Iraq Video - A video showing the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq and a photograph of a man masturbating have divided students and challenged administrators at Watkins College of Art & Design.