«OH, ART IS TOO HARD»

OTTAWA — A major exhibit of contemporary art opening at the National Gallery of Canada in June includes works of an explicit nature, but the gallery has no plans to hire bouncers to check IDs at the door to keep minors out. Instead, the gallery's approach will be more like a parental advisory sticker on a CD, says Jonathan Shaughnessy, the gallery's assistant curator of contemporary art.Curated by the Tate Modern gallery in London, Pop Life: Art in a Material World includes more than 200 works by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. According to Shaughnessy, less than 10 per cent of the artwork is explicit.The restricted pieces include Koons' photographs of himself and his then-wife, Ilona Staller (a.k.a. porn star Cicciolina), and a video by performance artist Andrea Fraser, who shot a sexual liaison with a private collector who paid her $20,000.

Montreal Gazette
April 14 2010