Here's the Painting of Putin in Lingerie Seized by Russian Authorities

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Maggie Lange

08/28/13 08:27AM

Filed to: Putin

Russian authorities seized this painting, showing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in ladies' lingerie, from a St. Petersburg art gallery.

In the painting, Putin's dolled up in a pink slip, carefully combing through the hair of a push-up-brassiere-wearing Medvedev. Did the police seize this artwork so they could hang it in their offices? So that disrobed Putin and Medvedev could suggestively gaze upon the authorities from a government wall?

Unlikely: The police also grabbed two other paintings that depicted Russian politicians who had been at the forefront of supporting Russia's draconian anti-gay/anti-trans legislation. Russia has laws that ban "gay propaganda" as well as legislation that protects politicians from "insults."

The owner of the gallery said he hadn't been given any formal warrant or explanation regarding the seizing of the paintings. The gallery has since been closed.

[image via BBC video]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

6

PoopiesAF Maggie Lange 08/28/13 08:53AM

I don't think the take-away, should be that, Putin is some evil motherfucker. I think, it should be, holy fuck, thank god we have a 1st Amendment.

Because removing offensive art, is something Rudy Giuliani would've gotten away with, but for the 1st Amendment. Hell, it was a 5-4 (maybe 6-3?) supreme court case that upheld the right to burn the American flag.

And as vile as the "gay-propaganda laws" are, is there little doubt, that many states would pass and enforce such laws today, but for the 1st Amendment? I listened to an NPR segment on the "gay propaganda laws" and many Americans called in saying they supported the law because, ya know "protecting children" and "don't want to see all these parades, that's all."

4

ThisRaccoonIsOnFire PoopiesAF 08/28/13 09:18AM

"I don't think the take-away, should be that, Putin is some evil motherfucker. I think, it should be, holy fuck, thank god we have a 1st Amendment"

6

cheerful_exgirlfriend PoopiesAF 08/28/13 09:19AM

Why can't the take-away be both?

And yes, you are right about the myriad of bad laws and/or unfair curtailing of certain people's activities that would happen is the 1st Amendment were nonexistent.

We should also pause on how the 1st is being co-opted for corporate persons so they can "speak" with their money, since apparently money is speech.

2

PoopiesAF cheerful_exgirlfriend 08/28/13 09:28AM

I don't think we can take-away both without staining our fellow Americans who'd do the same, if they could. The failing is with human nature.

"I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death."
Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan

Though I agree that the current line of 1st Amendment jurisprudence is disheartening, in particular Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder. But even in the First Amendment's weakened state, liberal countries like England, don't nearly have the speech protection we have.

1

cheerful_exgirlfriend PoopiesAF 08/28/13 09:36AM

Nice quote, I mean it.

But Can't some humans be especially evil and we can point and say "over there, evil guy" ? I'm not understanding why it is important that we don't note how bad the guy is, which IMO, takes away zippo from any other bad/evil anywhere else including in our fair land.

5

IShTyouNot Maggie Lange 08/28/13 09:23AM

Ironically, Putin (which literally means 'whore' in French, so I always get a chuckle out of his name) enjoys posing for homoerotic photographs.

1

VeryWell IShTyouNot 08/28/13 10:04AM

The chest that launched a thousand boners. Ironic.
More like President "Poutine". Cheesy & meaty and likely to kill you.

CrankTango IShTyouNot 08/28/13 01:02PM

You're thinking of putain, which doesn't sound like Putin at all, in either language. Like VeryWell said, in French they pronounce it like poutine, which is quite yummy, in a greasy sort of way.

IShTyouNot CrankTango 08/28/13 06:34PM

'In' placed at the end of a word is normally pronounced like 'ain' in French (oursin, romarin, Tintin), and so 'putain' is commonly mispelled as 'putin', and anyone who's studied corpus linguistics will recognize that a common spelling mistake is never simply a spelling mistake.

CrankTango IShTyouNot 08/28/13 06:51PM

OK sure, but Putin in French is written Poutine, just like Yeltsin was Eltsine. I get what you're saying, but the whole common spelling mistake lesson is irrelevant.

1

Muscato Maggie Lange 08/28/13 09:29AM

I would like to curate an exhibition by and about presidents and heads of state. There are these, which while hardly deathless masterpieces are certainly successfully provocative; there was that nude of the South African president that caused a stink a while back; there are endless fabulous kitschy takes on the Kim family; and there are the dog (and cat!) paintings of our own G.W. Bush. Churchill painted, too, and I think Ike did as well. What else?

snugbug Muscato 08/28/13 02:35PM

Great idea!

What else?

Well, you-know-who's paintings, of course.

Saif Gaddafi (one of the sons of the deceased Lybian dictator) produced some rather.. surrealist works featuring his father.

All that "socialist realism" trashola inspired by dear leaders from the Eastern Bloc, China, Cuba, North Korea, etc., although to me is more lugubrious and creepy than funny.

I believe Ulysses S. Grant painted as well.

And lastly: Here's a good one of Burlesquoni; during his demented reign, a cottage industry developed in Italy devoted to mocking him in paint.

16

ClueHeywood Maggie Lange 08/28/13 08:29AM

It's almost like they've never heard of the First Amendment.

5

John Boehner ClueHeywood 08/28/13 08:32AM

The first amendment of...

(though, I laughed, so probably intentional. IT'S SO HARD TO TELL ON THE INTERNET)

Dick Nickels ClueHeywood 08/28/13 08:54AM

Damn, that's raysist, bro.