THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones
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| ‘Far from being vilified for blasphemy, the artist Nick Reynolds has got his statue of Pete Doherty as Jesus exhibited in St Marylebone parish church.’ Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA |
UNITED KINGDOM---Are there any limits to the way Christianity can be depicted in art? A statue of
Pete Doherty posing as Christ on the cross has just gone on view in London. Surely this is blasphemous? The raucous, wild-living pop star as Jesus, his sufferings in the media equated with the passion of Christ, his naked flesh nailed up as if he were the son of God? Come on, Christians! Surely this is too much to take. And yet far from being vilified for blasphemy, the artist,
Nick Reynolds, has got his statue of Doherty as Jesus exhibited in St Marylebone parish church. In the eyes of the Church of England it is, therefore, presumably not blasphemous at all. On the contrary, it is an exciting contemporary work of religious art. [
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