Comments on: Cowen Pictures — RHA Gallery Did Not Complain to Gardai

By: cearta.ie Â» Cowengate: no use crying over spilt milk

cearta.ie Â» Cowengate: no use crying over spilt milk — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:21:20 +0000

[...] Belfast Telepgraph | Bock the Robber, passim but esp here and here | Brian – censorship is [...]

By: KenOB

KenOB — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:38:38 +0000

Also Conor Casby will now be a celeb in the art world, his paintings will probably sell quite well (Im not informed here, but Im presuming he was quite anonymous ((?)) Im delighted he will probably go on to make a decent living. Im just trying to find the positive, we need more people to try to generate the positive vibes in these difficult times!

By: Naked Cowen Paintings - Cowen made an arse of it. » Blog Archive » BifSniff

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:30:49 +0000

[...] denies demanding an apology RHA Gallery did not complain to Gardai Allan Cavanagh on censorship and satire Damien Mulley calls for protest Some other coverage of it [...]

By: Gary Ireland

Gary Ireland — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:35:08 +0000

I think that they are great! Vincent Van Gough never sold a single painting in his lifetime because he was ahead of the â€œfashionâ€ of his time. Some years ago a Japanese Company paid millions for his â€œSunflowersâ€ and had a purpose built Gallery to show it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

By: KenOB

KenOB — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:18:27 +0000

Does anybody think that the paintings are in fact really good paintings from a purely artistic pov. With all the brouhaha nobody has commented on what fine work it is and that perhaps they belong in a gallery, and perhaps the subject should delighted with the workmanship and obvious effort taken over them. anybody?

By: Abdul

Abdul — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:20:02 +0000

C'est,- I'm not well an all…..

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:18:16 +0000

-Abdul
No. 8 compared the government to islamic fundamentalists, not the artist, but I get your point. I find the image of the CEO of Angola Irish bank with his snout buried in the Minister for Healthâ€™s trough to be fucking outrageous. Good god man but your mind must go to some dark places.

By: Abdul

Abdul — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:46:43 +0000

Good point by No 8 above in relation to the Islamic fun -da -mental -ists. Maybe the artist is declaring a Fat-ah on Fianna Fail. My view is that he (the artist) is entitled to exhibit his paintings – but only at his exhibition. We have to draw the line at artists running amok and hijacking other exhibitions. For instance, what if our beloved "Sisters of Mercy – and of never having any acquaintance of the baldy man with the one eye" were to hold a exhibition of holeeee pictures – all blessed by the bishops helmet. And what if some depraved fucker were to sneak in there in the dead of night and nail a pic of, as above, the CEO of Angola Irish bank with his snout buried in the Minister for Health's trough – and their little piggy tails still a twitching – pic strategically positioned between the Angel Gabriel and St Francis of whatyoucall to provoke maximum umbrage. They'd be blessing themselves repeatedly then, like cardinals on speed. But would this not be unacceptable folks? To paraphrase the Blessed Virgin, "would this not be fucking outrageous"?

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:00:26 +0000

That's the real issue here. The waters have been muddied so as to make this about Casby's actions, or the the artistic merits of th painting or the news worthiness of the story.
The real issue is the use of political pressure to censure an unflattering portrayal of the leader of the political party in power.
Today it's a painting but tomorrow it could be something else. Caricatures, as someone pointed out elsewhere on the site, are also generaly unflattering, and then what? Articles on corruption, incompetence etc.

The issues for me are censurship of a news story which could create a trend of the powers that be (or at least are seen to be) deciding what constitutes a news worthy story,
And the misuse of governmental power.

By: unstranger

unstranger — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:32:24 +0000

The gardaÃ, people, is an institution with all the ability to behave in a normal human manner that all institutions posses, which is not at all.
A garda cannot behave other than as instructed. Thinking is not allowed in that place.
Hence the stupid shit.
Also, the political influence and control over that institution of the State is total. Politics being completely and wholly corrupt, not capable of honesty is a huge part of this art story.