A recently displayed painting of South African president Jacob Zuma with his penis out has polarised certain sections of that country. Now the painting has been vandalised, stirring up emotions on social media.
The painting by artist Brett Murray compares Zuma’s phallus to a spear and has been on display in the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. A few minutes ago, two well-dressed men walked up to the artwork and painted a large red X over the president’s “spear”.
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A journalist present at the gallery immediately started uploading photos of the incident to Twitter, which were then shared by eNews head Patrick Conroy:
eNewsChannel anchor Iman Rappetti photographs first man defacing Zuma painting @eNewsChannel yfrog.com/j2on9jlj
— Patrick Conroy (@PatrickConroySA) May 22, 2012
Breaking News: Zuma ‘Spear’ painting defaced. Police on seen. Here is latest pic @eNewsChannel yfrog.com/nyfmvbdj
— Patrick Conroy (@PatrickConroySA) May 22, 2012
Others started tweeting pictures grabbed from their TV screens after a film crew managed to catch the vandals in the act:
Caught in the act – defacing Brett Murray’s #zumaspear painting. Caught on film by ENews. twitter.com/alastairotter/…
— Alastair Otter (@alastairotter) May 22, 2012
Some expressed shock at what had happened:
Criminally, the controversial Jacob Zuma painting ‘The Spear’ has been defaced at the Goodman Gallery mypict.me/n1tmS
— Cliff-that’s all (@PigSpotter) May 22, 2012
My jaw just dropped! Zuma Spear painting was just defaced with a bucket of paint! twitpic.com/9nxubh
— Duncan Kriek (@DuncanKriek) May 22, 2012
Others suggested that the two men who painted over the spear had done Zuma a favour:
A young black man nd an old white man just did Zuma a favour by defacing the spear.
— mapfumo (@pfumos) May 22, 2012
One user thought that people might be overreacting slightly:
Defaced Zuma’s painting? The just splashed his spear for dickheads sake
— FaanBison
(@Faanfairlane) May 22, 2012
Others suggested the whole thing was a giant conspiracy:
The defacing of Zuma’ SPEAR, was a major propaganda-stunt in the ANC’s dialectical struggle to draw attention away from ET’s murder-trial NW
— Neo Genocide (@genocidesa) May 22, 2012
Zuma ‘Spear’ painting has been defaced “by a man in a suit”. I think it’s all part of the artwork? How else does one get past those guards?
— Natalie le Roux (@Natalie_leRoux) May 22, 2012
At leat one Twitter user suggested the painting may have gone up in value:
The Zuma painting just quadrupled in value. #defaced
— Rob Gilmour ☛ (@robgilmour) May 22, 2012
The South African president has filed a case against the gallery to have the painting removed, saying that it’s disrespectful to him.
The two men who vandalised the painting have since been arrested.
