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Mary and Sir Cliff star in their own hard-core picture
Robert Mendick14.05.09
Fans of Sir Cliff Richard may wish to turn away now. They may find it difficult to look him in the face again.
An artist has produced a portrait of the singer with morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse out of pornographic cuttings from top-shelf magazines. From a distance, the collage looks harmless. But on closer examination, intimate body parts and various sexual poses become clear.
The portrait, measuring 42cm by 42cm, goes on display with a price tag of £25,000 at a new West End gallery which opens tonight.
The artist, Jonathan Yeo, told the Standard today he had chosen Mrs Whitehouse, who died in 2001 aged 91, because he “always had a problem with her”. Sir Cliff is targeted because “anybody who has lived in apparent abstinence deserves a bit of ribbing”.
Yeo, 39, a highly-acclaimed portrait painter whose subjects have included Tony Blair, Dennis Hopper and Erin O'Connor, said: “If Mary Whitehouse was still around I hope she would treat this picture as an insult. She equated nudity, bad language and violence as if they were all equally dangerous.” He added: “I presume Cliff will have a sense of humour about it.”
Yeo painted the pair in oils from a photograph of Sir Cliff and Mrs Whitehouse in the Sixties. He then overlaid this with pornographic cuttings, matching colour, tone and brush strokes with sexual images. Yeo thinks he must have gone through 50 magazines, drawing in particular on Big Black Butt magazine.
The image is the latest produced by Yeo using porn. He depicted George W Bush “to offend a man I found offensive”. His latest portrait is likely to stir controversy. Sir Cliff 's spokesman Bill Latham said today: “It is so tacky I don't think Sir Cliff would want to give the artist the satisfaction of a reaction.”
John Beyer, who took over Mrs Whitehouse's campaign, said: “To have her memory besmirched is contemptible and passé. He needs to grow up.”
But Mrs Whitehouse's son Richard, 63, said: “It is quite witty really.”
The portrait goes on display tonight at The Rathbone, Rathbone Place.
Lazarides Rathbone, Group Show, 15 May – 25 June 2009, www.lazinc.com
Reader views (7)
Yeo's portraits are some of the finest I have seen, but I think he has let himself down with this collage. Yes I see the irony, yes I see his attempt to provoke reaction, but it is a little childish compared to his other works.
- Not Exactly A Looney Lefty!, The real world
this Jonathan Yeo are using big names to makehimself known to the public.
If he is really an artist, then try to make this nude collage on his own portrait.
- Josefina S. De Jesus, Manila, Philippines
Mary Whitehouse and Cliff Richard...William Hague...WOW! Yeo is the defintion of contemporary times!!! whos next with the (yawn) porno collage? the original cast of Coronation St? George Formby? Ken Livingstone?
- Tomothyferris, reading, UK
well, yes, I doubt Mrs Whitehouse would have approved; though her son sounds a bit more sensible. But then what would she have thought of Sir Cliff's support for gay marriage? maybe we are all a bit more grown up these days-though pity the context isn't art with some aesthetic merit.
- Alan, London
serious...£25k for this?
Laz and his stable of wanna be YBAs is so embarressing...since Faile & Banksy left, Laz is on his last legs and these collages show how the gallery is aiming at artwork of GCSE age...cliff & whitehouse done in porn? wow, so clever! Vilus (or whatever he is called), makes boring portraits on wall...
streetart is dead, laz is flogging his lame ducks and this new gallery is his swan song...lets hope the streets and other galleries bring some inspired, clever and forward thinking artwork soon, because this wannabe Damian Hirst ex picture editor is putting the london art scene and graf back by 10 years.
Laz aint real graf, his artists arent real street art, and in context of art they arent witty cleaver or good...so what is he other than an expensive version of athena - selling wall hangings to bankers and yuppies
- Jeffrey Speller, london
John Beyer needs to grow up.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK
Ha ha - oh ho ho ho - tee hee!!!
- Napoleon Blownaparte, London
