Artist of the Day: Leon Ferrari

Yes, my artist of the day is Leon Ferrari, an Argentinian conceptual artist. Yes, his work is blasphemous, so what?

via

[Artlyst], and via [Glasstire]

"Conservative protestors and Catholic church authorities in Argentina launched furious attacks on three art exhibitions during the same period, and succeeded in shutting two of them down, on the grounds that they were an insult to Christianity. The first of the censored shows, closed to the public on Dec. 17, 2004. It featured the works of renowned Argentine artist León Ferrari, who stated that his greatest sin was having confessed that he didn't believe in hell.

Ferrari's Buenos Aires show depicted images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as well as various saints in a blender, an electric toaster and a frying pan. Shortly after the exhibit opened Cardinal Bergoglio, the than Archbishop of Buenos Aires, declared that the exhibition was "blasphemous" and demanded its closure".

Orchestrated Protests erupted in the area and Cardinal Bergoglio accused the artist of "blasphemy" in an open letter, prompting a group of Catholic lawyers, who called for the show to be closed. A handful of fanatics also invaded the cultural centre and smashed several of the pieces on display, accidentally injuring a woman who was visiting the the gallery. A judge later ordered the city government to close the Ferrari retrospective, because it "wounded the sensibilities of Christians." According to her statement, the show invaded the privacy of practising Catholics, who constituted the majority and subsequently this gave the court the right to impose their will in having the exhibition closed."