Race, Art, Free Speech: Portrait Of South African President Vandalized

Enlarge Jerome Delay/AP

The controversial portrait of South African President Jacob Zuma painted by Brett Murray stands defaced at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday.

The controversial portrait of South African President Jacob Zuma painted by Brett Murray stands defaced at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday.

A story that had already been controversial just received another dose of scandal: Two men showed up at an art gallery in South Africa and vandalized a painting of the country's president.

How controversial is The Spear? President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress were suing to have the painting and the pictures of it published in a newspaper removed.

As The Los Angeles Times reports, the painting "depicted Zuma posed like Soviet leader V.I. Lenin, with his pants unzipped and genitals exposed."

The Times adds:

"[Brett] Murray called the work 'an attempt at humorous satire of political power and patriarchy within the context of other artworks in the exhibition'.

"The painting ignited a storm in South Africa, with the ANC and its political allies calling the painting racist while artists and the Freedom of Expression Institute decried the ruling party's efforts to suppress the work."

As Reuters reports in its story, opinion about the painting is divided along racial lines, but that is complicated by the fact that Murray, who is white, made his name as an artist by criticizing the apartheid government that ruled until 1994.

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Race, Art, Free Speech: Portrait Of South African President Vandalized