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A row has broken out over whether a Jewish gallery should have mounted an exhibition of pictures of the crucifixion by artists including Tracey Emin.
The London Jewish Museum of Art said it had received a substantial number of complaints since the show, The Cross Purposes — Shock and Contemplation in Images of the Crucifixion, opened last week.
The issue has been deemed so contentious that the Jewish Chronicle is running an online poll on whether the gallery is in the right or wrong.
Jewish tycoon Benjamin Perl, a campaigner for Jewish state schools and a patron of the Ben Uri Gallery, challenged the show.
“From all the subjects from our heritage, why choose this? They are trying to play to the non-Jews. What type of material is this for our Jewish museum? This would never happen in New York or Jerusalem,” he said.
David Glasser, co-chairman of the gallery in St John's Wood, said they had been aware it was a sensitive subject so had handled the exhibition carefully.
“Ben Uri is a very proud Jewish museum of art but in the centre of the mainstream art, not religious, context,” he said.
“This is an extremely legitimate subject to be addressed. But it is true that a lot of blood has been shed in the name of God — and in particular the name of the crucified Jesus Christ — and the crucifixion as an image has been there to beat the Jewish community with.”
The show includes works by Graham Sutherland, Stanley Spencer, Eric Gill, Maggi Hambling and Lee Miller and traces the way the visual representation of the crucifixion has changed over time — from solely religious and Christian to a more generic expression of suffering.
Reader views (5)
Have to agree with the curator here for the image of the crucifixion has changed so much over the past 2000 years. Here was the cruellest of death sentences, perpetrated by an occupying army to subdue a rebellious conquered populace, the vast majority of those enduing such torture Jewish including Jesus Christ. Even after the "death" of Christ, a great many Christians killed in this manner would have been Jewish converts for what is Christianity but a small Jewish sect that outgrowth its begetter through the openness of its embrace. Those who use the cross as stick with which to beat the Jewish people and the Jewish faith simply show their ignorance of their faith's birth. On the other hand, those of the Jewish faith who condemn such an exhibition display the self-centred, self-obsessed, self-righteous indignation of the religiously correct which shows no allegiance to any religion or faith.
- Paula Griffin, South London, 02/07/2010 11:28
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The crucifixion is a silly thing to get hung up over
- Wispy Wonder, London, 30/06/2010 13:43
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This is the same old rubbish followed up with the same old complaints ,how completely boring and a complete waste of money.
And guess what,I have chosen not to go and see it !!!
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 30/06/2010 13:39
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Have no jews ever been crucified, then?
- Bloke, Lambeth, 30/06/2010 12:07
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If you don't like it, don't go and see it. Simples!
- Paul, London, 30/06/2010 12:00
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