Art Abstractions
Picasso may not be the best artist to commission a portrait of oneself. Unless you are Chuckie ( Child's Play 1988 ), Chaka Doll (Kakabakaboo), Michael Jackson (Thriller) and anything would be better than your face. That aside, the National Press Club of the Philippines recently commissioned a work from the Neo-Angono Artist Collective (NAAC) for a mural that is supposed to depict press freedom. The issue came up when the artwork was recently unveiled with some noticeable changes to the painting. At this point, NAAC complained that censorship was the root cause of the alterations (click on the link to view the changes) so as not to "embarass" President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) when she unvelied the mural in a ceremony held at the office of the NPC. The mural is supposed to be 8 X 32 feet and I had an image of PGMA who stands barely less than 5 feet (add two or three inches for heels) on tip toes trying to remove the covers of the mural. So much has been said about ...