Mandela corpse painting is insulting - ANC
The African National Congress says a painting depicting Nelson Mandela as a corpse undergoing an autopsy is appalling.
The painting, by Yiull Damaso, is being housed in the Hyde Park shopping centre in Johannesburg.
It is a modern take of a 17th century Rembrandt painting called "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tripp" which depicts an autopsy being undertaken in front of a group of doctors. In this version, former president Mandela is the cadaver with late Aids orphan Nkosi Johnson performing the autopsy. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and politicians FW de Klerk, Jacob Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa, Trevor Manuel, Thabo Mbeki and Helen Zille look on.
The painting has prompted complaints to the art gallery.
In a statement, the ANC says that it is appalled and "strongly condemns in the strongest possible terms" the painting.
"It is in bad taste, disrespectful, and it is an insult and an affront to values of our society," the statement says.
The ANC also launched an attack on the Mail & Guardian, which carried the orignal report about the painting. The statement says that the paper carried the picture on the front page and the story "only on page 10 (which) (by any measure of newsworthiness is less significant)". The statement says this adds insult to injury and is "gutter journalism and soulless sensationalism which knows no limit and will exploits anything to increase its bottom line".
The statement goes on: "In African society it is a foreign act of ubuthakathi (bewitch) to kill a living person and this so called work of art which is also racist. It goes further by violating Tat' uMandela's dignity by stripping him naked in the glare of curious onlookers some of whom have seen their apartheid ideals die before them.
"Mandela is our international icon, respected and celebrated the world over as the source of wisdom and the humanity well from which to drink. He is a man whose ideals would live forever and whom we should cherish and respect and forever hold dear. That is why we are more shocked and disgusted this so called art that depicts a dead Madiba.
"Why would anyone dream of a dead Madiba? Why would newspapers including the Mail and Guardian put to prominence this work of rubbish in their publication? Why would a respected public space and business site, Hyde Park be a home for the creation of such insulting work to our icon, our leaders and all of us?
"We strongly condemn the practice and promotion of the freedom of expression and freedom of the arts which knows no bounds and only sees itself as the most supreme freedom that supersedes and tramples other people's constitutional rights to dignity and privacy, and undermines our values.
"This unbridled freedom of the media, as evidenced by projection of this so called art in the Mail and Guardian, confirms that the self-regulated print media environment is a recipe for disaster and negates the core values we hold dear as the society as contained in our constitution.
"We therefore remain resolute and unmoved in our call for an independent arbiter in the form of a Media Appeals Tribunal to monitor, regulate and chastise the kind of gutter, soulless and disrespectful journalism of Mail and Guardian."
