Artist Depicts Assassination Of Bush, The Queen In New Brazil Exhibition (PHOTOS)

The Sao Paulo Art Biennial may be renowned for celebrating the best of Brazil's avant garde, but international critics say one of this year's featured exhibits -- a series of charcoal sketches depicting the imagined assassinations of former U.S. President George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II, among other world leaders -- has gone too far. (Scroll down for photos)

One sketch in the controversial series, titled "Enemies," depicts Bush kneeling on the ground while artist Gil Vicente presses a pistol to the former president's temple. In other sketches, the Queen is apparently unaware of the artist pointing a gun directly at her back, while Pope Benedict XVI faces Vicente directly, his arms outstretched in a quizzical shrug. Other world leaders shown in Vicente's 9-sketch series include former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, according to The Telegraph.

The Brazilian Bar Association demanded "Enemies" be removed shortly after making its debut Saturday. "Even though a work of art freely expresses the creativity of its maker, without limits, there have to be limits to exhibiting it publicly," a spokesman said, according to the AFP.

Biennial organizers have thus far rejected efforts to remove the exhibit, and in an interview with the AFP, Vicente defended his work. "They claim it justifies crime," he said. "Stealing public money is not a crime? The reports on TV aren't trying to justify crimes? Only my work is justification of crime?"

See photos of 'Enemies' below:

Comments

[Eric Ehrmann]

08:34 PM on 11/09/2010

The Sao Paulo Bienale bills itself as the crossroads of art and politics. When you walk in promiently displayed are the names and logos of sponsors, which include Brazil's major banks as well as Microsoft and the Embassy of the United States of America.

[Peter Mammes]

06:41 AM on 10/25/2010

The artworks are not provocative or original. They probably appeal to people who have never looked at art. The artist is using a cheap trick of self promotion. These images speak very little about world politics or social issues and depict more a vendetta that the artist feels towards authority and his obsession with these individuals. I do not see the point of putting himself into the artworks at all except to illustrate the point that the artist alone has the ability to better his opponents with a gun like a thug. The artist could have used this idea as a starting point and developed the ideas much much further and more intricate. People buying these images probably just want a controversial portrait of a world leader in their home and nothing else.As self promotion it is very successful as this article shows and he can continue with (yawn) another menagerie of different world leaders soon.Can't wait to see the response on that one.

[noladebby]

02:20 AM on 10/03/2010

I would take the Bush and Ahmadinejad ones. I don't know if it's art but it's very provocative.

[Mr Anonymous]

01:20 AM on 10/03/2010

He's a pretty good artist. He just picked up another fan.

[Igor13]

10:12 PM on 10/02/2010

As an artist he's reached the highest of praise, someone trying to censor him!

[Chyna Doll]

03:18 PM on 10/02/2010

For some reason this makes me remeber when Dick Chenney went hunting in my small Arkansas community. I remeber seeing the entourage of black suv's and thinking hope he is involved in a hunting accident lol.

[Sam Sedaei]

02:33 PM on 10/02/2010

I would have liked it more if he had depicted these individuals responding to charges on war crimes or child abuse cases before an international tribunal.

[Ben Dixon]

12:47 PM on 10/02/2010

Not bad, but waiting for him to follow up with pictures of guns being leveled against Mohammed, Kim Jung Il, and Chavez.

[MIZZOU-DMCRT-PLEXICO]

11:01 AM on 10/02/2010

Raw, Powerful, but amazing art work..

[fairwayhill]

10:24 PM on 10/01/2010

Interestingly, in the pictures of elizabeth and the Pope, the gun is held with one hand and pointing downward, whereas the one of Bush and Ahmadinejad the gun is held with two hands and pointing straight out.

[Edward Standley]

09:42 PM on 10/01/2010

My! Some artists are SO smart, clever and avant garde! And some observers are such rubes!

[scoobanchi]

08:59 PM on 10/01/2010

Art is meant to evoke an emotion wether it be anger, sadness, love or serenity or any of the coutless others. The drawings are well done technically and on key. If you don't like it, look away. I look deeper and more thorough at what the artist is trying to say and not so much at the literal. Some people are just way too serious and way too bored with their own lives. Long live art!

[Tim Converse]

04:14 PM on 10/01/2010

Any idiot can paint in pastels or draw pretty pictures of puppies and kittens. Most have.

But to be truly ghastly and to invoke real feelings of horror? That takes real art. The most defining characteristic of art is it's ability to disturb in order to communicate.

This man has real talent and as disturbing as I find these images, I truly appreciate them as well.

Well done.

[justanotherbushhater]

01:38 PM on 10/01/2010

Better to express rage through one's art than through actions, eh? Art should be revolutionary.

[wecanonlyhope]

12:25 PM on 10/01/2010

This is not art. It's sick.

[Mr Anonymous]

01:24 AM on 10/03/2010

Let me guess, you consider half naked images of women from the renassaince with baby angels flying around art. Art is a form of expression from the artist, not the critic. Its still art, whether you agree with it or not.