10/12/2007
Russia Bans Kissing Cops as Well as Bush-Putin-Bin Laden Three-way
Russian cultural minister Alexander Sokolov has banned an image of two policemen locked in a romantic kiss from appearing in an exhibition scheduled to go on display in Paris next week.
The Guardian reports: "Mr Sokolov described the photo as political provocation and said he was pulling it, together with 16 other works, from a show at Paris's Maison Rouge exhibition hall. The exhibits were all displayed in Russia this year at Moscow's state-owned Tretyakov gallery. The minister also banned another work by the same irreverent group, Blue Noses, that shows Vladimir Putin, George Bush and Osama bin Laden cavorting on a double bed in their underpants."
We've tracked down those photos as well:
Said Sokolov: "If this exhibition appears [in Paris] it will bring shame on Russia. In this case, all of us will bear full responsibility. It is inadmissible...to take all this pornography, kissing policemen and erotic pictures to Paris."
Honestly, are these pictures any more obscene than the shirtless beefcake shots of Putin that appeared in German magazine Spiegel last month? I think not.
Posted 12:28 PM EST by Andy Towle in Art & Design, George W. Bush, Kiss, Paris , Photography, Russia | Permalink
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My goodness, it appears that the Minister and I are in full agreement -- for different reasons, of course.
I would forbid the display of these works because they are complete crap -- obvious, prurient and devoid of any meaning deeper than that which sits so cliched upon their surface.
They are an embarassment to Russian artists of skill and substance.
Posted by: Becks07 | Oct 12, 2007 12:40:14 PM
Those pics are wrong on so many levels. Everyone knows you wear white socks with pink boxers...
Posted by: Davey | Oct 12, 2007 1:01:07 PM
The image of the soldiers kissing at the top is great. The rest is pure uninspired shit.
Posted by: michael | Oct 12, 2007 1:21:55 PM
love the kissin' cops! putin's pix makes me ill. not sure about the tacky trio, however people once thought lautrec was trash, so who knows?
Posted by: the queen | Oct 12, 2007 1:27:11 PM
I love the photo of the kissing policemen. It is quite beautiful, and in my opinion very artistic. I love the setting: the white snow and the birch trees surrounding them in their private moment of bliss.
But the other photos are, in fact, crap. They look like something that a bored, hung-over college freshman might create with Photoshop.
Keep the policemen and ditch the rest.
Posted by: Jonathon | Oct 12, 2007 1:29:55 PM
Vive la difference... :-)
The policemen are as stiff (in their pose! LOL) and cold as the birches and snow that surround them. There is no eroticism for me in this photo and, because I have seen men kiss before, no innovation either. That is why, for me, the pic is a bust.
Posted by: Becks07 | Oct 12, 2007 1:35:33 PM
Ewwwwwwww! Andy, PLEASE stop posting those shirtless pics of Vladimir Putin!!!! It's disgusting!
Posted by: peterparker | Oct 12, 2007 1:40:23 PM
I'm guessing he's banning the export of the originals to Paris, not ordering their return from Paris. Should he have that power? I don't think so. For all his efforts, though, here they are for all to see. Stupid man.
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Oct 12, 2007 2:06:51 PM
So he's banning them from one show, but they are available on the Internet? Huh?
Posted by: Gregg | Oct 12, 2007 3:14:52 PM
More photos by Blue Noses Group.
Posted by: Pyry | Oct 12, 2007 4:06:07 PM
Apparently my link tag wasn't allowed:
http://de.artnet.com/artist/424522864/blue-noses-group.html
Posted by: Pyry | Oct 12, 2007 4:06:41 PM
Apparently no one hear has heard of Banksy or seen any of his works. The kissing policemen is such a blatant rip-off of his work I am forced to assume it is an homage. http://www.thismoment.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blog/banksy.jpg
Posted by: MaliceAlice | Oct 13, 2007 4:26:10 AM
The minister also commented that showing "pornography" like the kissing policemen, which is titled "The Age of Charity," did not jibe with the visit of the Russian Patriarch Aleksy II to France.
Posted by: KevinVT | Oct 14, 2007 7:10:51 AM
Oh, and Malicealice: according to Shaburov, one of the "Blue Noses," the inspiration for the work was Banksy's kissing policemen. For another Sots-Art take on the male kiss see http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Эра_милосердия_%28фотография%29
(The Brezhnev-Honecker kiss by Vrubel' on the Berlin Wall was taken by Boswell as unironic)
Posted by: KevinVT | Oct 14, 2007 7:23:04 AM