ARTNET NEWS
By Ben Davis
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| Mark Ryden, "Rosie's Tea Party" (2003). Photo courtesy Mark Ryden. |
VIRGINIA---It's a tempest in a tea party. Specifically, it's a crusade over a painting of a tea party, and one that involves threats to revoke a museum's public funding, in the latest battle in the decades-long American culture wars. The outrage this time around is inspired by Rosie's Tea Party, a 2003 painting by the self-professed "pop surrealist" artist
Mark Ryden, included in a show opening Saturday at the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach. Local media has gotten in on the story, and the kerfuffle has now attracted the attention of hard-right Catholic League head Bill Donohue, who issued a letter targeting museum director Debi Gray. [
link]
