Comments on: Becoming an International Laughing Stock over #Picturegate

By: Mary Harney

Mary Harney — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:24:15 +0000

How many college’s of “ART” do you have? How many Art student’s? When RTE ran the first news at 9p.m. with the art expert on. He should have said the “Painting” was “Priceless” instead of nothing

By: cearta.ie » Cowengate: Pictures at an exhibition

cearta.ie » Cowengate: Pictures at an exhibition — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:22:34 +0000

By: Cowen Portraits, or “PictureGate” | Keith @ Granite Shavings

Cowen Portraits, or “PictureGate” | Keith @ Granite Shavings — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:57:16 +0000

[...] got around to throwing my oar in on the Cowen portraits saga (or #picturegate, as it’s become [...]

By: Brian Boru

Brian Boru — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:00:01 +0000

FF Eire Nua Announcement To All Artists:
Yiz can paint anything yiz want to except politicians in their emperor’s new/NO clothes. That’s far too close to the bone representing that we have NO policies, NO clue as what to do and NO clue of what is even going on. That would provoke the general public to thought, and possibly social unrest, with the exception of the dimwits who keep voting us back in no matter how much we dump on the people

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:08:17 +0000

How does the report in the chinadaily.com approve of the censorship? To me, it looks like they covered the facts with no judgement.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:50:24 +0000

Right. That’s it! We should all march on the Garda Station and demand the release of the Casby Five.

By: Locky

Locky — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:29:47 +0000

“What might be even more fun right now is to see what he has made of Eamon and Enda, or even the hapless Jack O’Connor or other ‘leaders’ of social partnership?”

You won’t have the opportunity. According to the Indo, five paintings of other politicians are now in the possession of the Gardai.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:42:40 +0000

Simon,

Fair enough. Might be good for flogging a few tee-shirts as well but there comes a point where you risk becoming over exposed…

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:28:18 +0000

Not really Veronica worth the attention but it has given us our biggest hits in over a year. Look at the amount of comments it has generated and compare to more serious posts.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:56:23 +0000

Three centuries of political lampooning later, Mr. Casby’s efforts, however funny, are hardly original. Back in the eighteenth century it was commonplace for political cartoons to focus on genitalia and defecation as representative of the weaknesses of contemporary political figures. Apparently, the Vitctorians, with their ‘refined’ moral sensibilities , were less crude though no less effective and it all became much more sophisticated in the twentieth century.

But back when it all started Casby, and anyone caught distributing his works of art, might have looked forward to a few days in prison, if they lived in England, or having their heads chopped off, if they were unfortunate enough to live in France. What might be even more fun right now is to see what he has made of Eamon and Enda, or even the hapless Jack O’Connor or other ‘leaders’ of social partnership?

As the curator of the Museum of Cartoons in the UK put in in a recent article:
“Prime ministers and politicians can be hurt by cartoons, but they should remember the cartoonist’s role is not to couch favour or approval. They should ignore the cartoons that flatter and resist wincing at the ones that ridicule. If, at times, the attack does strike home, they should never let it show. The reputations of the real political giants have not been impaired by the images created by the cartoonists. Great politicians rise above the invective, no doubt sufficiently confident of their own reputation to allow their achievements to be judged by history, rather than by cartoons.”

Meanwhile, eight separate posts on this site on this issue over the past two days? Is it worth all this much attention?