Brian Cowen Nude Portraits Controversy

Brian Cowen Nude Portraits Controversy

Two oil paintings depicting Brian Cowen, then-Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, in the nude, were briefly displayed in Dublin art galleries in March 2009 as an act of guerilla art. The response of the media, politicians and the Garda Síochána (Irish police force) led to a sustained controversy referred to by some as Portraitgate.

In 2011, it was reported that both paintings were on display in Sean Mac D's pub in Dublin.

Read more about Brian Cowen Nude Portraits Controversy:  Portraits, Media Reports, Garda Investigation, Political Reaction, Legacy

Famous quotes containing the words brian, portraits and/or controversy:

    ... cooking is just like religion. Rules don’t no more make a cook than sermons make a saint.
    Anonymous, U.S. cook. As quoted in I Dream a World, by Leah Chase, who was quoted in turn by Brian Lanker (1989)

    It is not merely the likeness which is precious ... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced.
    Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

    And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.
    Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)