Pot. Kettle. Black.
Here's John Waters in today's Times, ranting about Cowangate:
The internet has reduced public debate to the level of a drunken argument, in which no holds are barred, in which deeply unpleasant people get to voice their ignorant opinions in the ugliest terms, in the name of “free speech”. The idea that we all need “a laugh” has allowed the “joke” to become elevated beyond everything. Nobody may object if others have declared something “funny”.
Now, I'm no satirist, but John Waters calling anyone else unpleasant for the airing of their opinions in any medium has got to be Swift-level, at least.
Waters also said that the paintings had little artistic merit. He added that a security breach was made at the National Gallery. So I would question the security arrangements at the National Gallery: if somebody can carry two framed paintings into the building, wouldn't it be possible for thieves to carry irreplaceable works out of the building? And I wonder (not ever having studied art appreciation or fine art) if on a technical level the two offending paintings would pass muster if offered for exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy? My third query is this:- if the paintings were intended as satire (the engraved social caricatures of Hogarth in 18th century England are regarded as artistic masterpieces on aesthetic and hermeneutic grounds) what exactly was being satired in the two paintings? The taoiseach's underwear? His bowel movements? But surely these have nothing to do with his economic policies or his public oratory or his leadership in cabinet? Incidentally I voted independent the last two occasions when I visited a polling station.
Particularly hilarious that Waters takes such offence, yet his coloum appears on the same page as the cartoons of Martyn Turner, whose cartoons regularly show Brian Cowen looking dishevelled, confused, often with a lit cigarette in one ear and occasionally with a pint in hand... Hypocritical, John?
Exactly. The act of putting the paintings up anwhere is worthless, as is the painting, because politicians (and everyone in the public eye) regularly get lampooned in cartoon form. There is no statement being made. What's interesting is the reaction by Mr Cowan and his staff, and the public reaction to that reaction. Both are misplaced and over wrought, missing the key issue of the day---what is to be done with the public's finances?