My Life In the Bush of Monkeys

I don’t know if this can be attributed to an “environment of fear” foisted upon the nation by the current administration, or that the manager of the Chelsea Market is a big Bush supporter, feared some kind of political or public repercussion, or is just a humorless dipshit, but “Bush Monkeys” cavort no more in Chelsea:

“Bush Monkeys,” a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market’s managers to close down the 60-piece show that was scheduled to stay up for the next month.



….”We had tons of people, like more than 2,000 people show up for the opening on Thursday night,” said show organizer Bucky Turco. “Then this manager saw the piece and the guy just kind of flipped out. ‘The show is over. Get this work down or I’m gonna arrest you,’ he said. It’s been kind of wild.”

Turco took the show down on Saturday and moved the art work to his small downtown Animal Gallery. Calls to the management of Chelsea Market for comment were not returned.

From afar, the painting offers a likeness of Bush, but when you get closer you see the image is made up of chimpanzees or monkeys swimming in a marsh.

….Savido plans to auction the painting and donate proceeds to an organization dedicated to freedom of expression.

“This is much deeper than art. This is fundamental American rights, freedom of speech,” Savido said. “To see that something like this can happen, especially in a place like New York City is mind boggling and scary.” [AP]

More from the NY Times:

“I approached them with the idea of bringing an edgy show by emerging artists here. I showed them an issue of our magazine, and they were psyched,” said Mr. Turco

….”When we hung the show on Wednesday, we were asked to take down the Bush piece,” he said. “I agreed but said I thought it makes a strong addition and I would re-hang it for the opening.”

Mr. Turco did that, and last Thursday, the meandering hallway of the market on Manhattan’s West Side filled with a gallery crowd of artists, models and rap singers. But the presence of a disc jockey and open bar created a nightclub milieu. That provoked another person who helps manage the market, Mr. Turco said.

“The party’s over right now,” Mr. Turco said the market worker told him before calling security to clear the crowd.

“I said, ‘Let’s walk and talk this over,’ and when we passed Chris’s painting, he flipped,” Mr. Turco said. “If I didn’t take the show down he was going to have me arrested, seize the art, and evict me from of my office,” he said. Mr. Turco delivered a contrite letter to the market management the following day but was forced to remove the 60 art works, photos and paintings on Saturday

So the guy was all worked up about the crowd and party atmosphere already, then saw the picture that wasn’t supposed to be hanging and went apeship, er, monkeyshit about it.

We still don’t know WHAT exactly the objection was to the picture, but I would still say we are talking about the behavior of a humorless dipshit.