LONDON — There are some who have suggested that U.S. President George W. Bush doesn’t do a lot of deep thinking, if he thinks at all. A recent portrait by British artist Jonathan Yeo suggests otherwise. In fact, a close look at Yeo’s unique work of art reveals that the 43rd president of the United States of America has one thing very much on his mind: pornography. According to The Sun, Yeo insists that regardless of how Bush and his outraged Republican friends feel about the matter, there was no malice intended on his part. “I did it for fun,” he explains, “not to offend. But I’m pleased with it. I did it to amuse.”
“It” is cutting up more than 100 sexy magazines in order to create the various bits and pieces needed for the 36-year-old artist’s collage to take shape: the shape of George Bush’s head and shoulders, to be exact.
Originally slated to produce a traditional portrait of the president for the Bush Library in Texas, Yeo decided to proceed with the less traditional project after his commission was rescinded.
Now the portrait, known as “Bush 2007” hangs in the Lazarides Gallery in London’s Soho, where it has inevitably drawn hostile fire.
A representative of the U.K. Republicans Abroad International weighed in on the art criticism by calling Yeo’s work “a cheap stunt.”
“This portrait is very distasteful,” a party spokesman in Texas has predictably opined. “Why would anyone want to make a picture of our president from pornographic material?”
Perhaps because elephant dung has already been used to creative affect in Chris Ofili’s 1996 “The Holy Virgin Mary” collage?
Those hoping for a copy of the presidential homage may purchase one of the 150 limited edition prints from London’s Lazarides gallery, which can be visited online at Lazinc.com.
