An Artist's Version of Self-Publishing

You'll have to admit, Taoiseach Brian Cowen is not a handsome man. Portly, yes. He's no Colin Farrell, not even on his best day.

Even so, artist Conor Casby chose to paint two portraits of the politician. Nudes, of course. There's all that artistic license to play with, and making a statement about a head of government being pantsed and what have you.

Apparently, no one at the National Gallery or the Royal Hibernian Academy were interested in hanging the paintings. No different from the average would-be author, is it, who wants to get published but can't convince HarperCollins to buy the manuscript.

An author has the option of going with vanity publishing, getting their work into print by doing it themselves. Mr. Casby took a page from that particular book and hung his paintings himself.

Mr. Casby spent some time in Pearse Street Garda Station on Tuesday. It seems that the people who run the art galleries were less than pleased that an artist took it upon himself to drive a nail into the wall and mount his own exhibit, complete with caption. That's their job, the professionals who know good art when they see it. Mr. Cowen in all his glory does not, in their stuffy opinion, constitute good art.

The least that Mr. Casby could do is to patch the nail holes and touch up the paint on the wall, to make amends. With all the publicity that's come his way, it's a good bet that someone will buy his two nudes and he'll come into enough profit to cover the costs of the minor repairs.

Gardai would like to charge the artist with indecency, but isn't the Taoiseach sensitive enough about his weight already? As for a potential charge of incitement to hatred, that's stretching things entirely out of proportion. If Mrs. Cowen isn't complaining, and surely she's seen the actual flesh in its entirety, where's the hate?

Did no one working at the galleries notice that a new painting suddenly appeared on the walls? If the two pictures had been removed at once, RTE wouldn't have to be apologizing for showing the offending portraits on the news, thereby broadcasting the incident all over the country.

Let's hope the National Gallery's curators aren't complaining about pay cuts and increased pension levies. They don't seem to be doing such a brilliant job at their current salary.