Nude portraits of Irish leader ignite debates about humor

[BuyingThyme]

Nude portraits of Irish leader ignite debates about humor
Thursday, March 26, 2009 12:07 PM CDT]
By Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press


DUBLIN -- Lawmakers accused the Irish government Thursday of waging a war against political satire with a crackdown on portraits by an artistic prankster depicting Prime Minister Brian Cowen in the nude and on the toilet.

Police this week impounded two paintings by Dublin high-school teacher Conor Casby, who admitted installing them on the walls of major art galleries in an act of guerrilla art.

Casby erected one in the National Gallery alongside authorized paintings of such Irish greats as poet W.B. Yeats, slain rebel Michael Collins and singer Bono, and another in the nearby Royal Hibernian Gallery.

The portrait in the National Gallery showed a naked, overweight Cowen sitting on the toilet holding a roll of tissue. The one in the Royal Hibernian showed the nude premier staring glumly into the distance as he holds his trousers to one side.

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Detectives questioned Casby, 35, Tuesday, on suspicion of committing acts of public indecency, incitement to hatred and criminal damage - because he hammered nails into the galleries' walls to hang his works. Police said they also seized from his home several other paintings of notables in the buff, whom they did not identify.

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