U.S. artist George Condo's painting entitled "Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen" is shown in the Wrong Gallery at the Tate Modern in London in this handout picture released October 23, 2006. REUTERS/George Condo/Handout
via The Scotsman, 10/23/06 :
LONDON (Reuters) - The Queen maintained a dignified silence on Monday after being depicted as a toothless Cabbage Patch doll in a controversial new portrait being shown at Tate Modern. [...]
via Artnet News, 10/25/06 : [links courtesy of ng]
WRONG GALLERY CONTROVERSY AT TATE MODERN
Leave it to the jokers at the Wrong Gallery to revive the old art-world practice of baiting the monarchy in England. The tiny novelty space, which has currently set up shop on the third floor of Tate Modern, is showcasing a painting by New York painter George Condo titled Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen. Part of a suite of nine portraits of Queen Elizabeth II (recently profiled by the New Yorker), the controversial work is a brushy rendering of the monarch as a regal Cabbage Patch doll (Condo had intended to paint Her Majesty in the nude in the style of The Rokeby Venus, but he was warned that nude portraits of the royal family were not allowed in public institutions.) While the royal family has declined to comment, Brendan Kelly of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters has spoken out, describing the Condo portrait as "embarrassingly bad" -- though Andrew James, the society's secretary, was less dismissive, according to the Sunday Times, noting, "It's unsettling, but the picture speaks to you directly."
