Some people have referred to footy legend George Best as a God but controversial artist Michael Browne has taken that literally. The above painting of the 'Belfast boy' as Jesus is causing a stir with holy rollers across the pond.
It's not the first time that Mr Browne has used footballers in his work. Previous efforts have featured Eric 'the King' Cantona as Christ (see below) and more recently he depicted Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand flanking Winston Churchill.
His latest painting, featuring Best, has drawn fire from local clergy including the Bishop of Bolton. Maybe he is just pissed that Browne didn't feature current Trotters keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen, after all he does save!
While many worship George Best on the field, I feel that many people, not just Christians, may find this painting inappropriate. Artists have often tried to portray the life of the Son of God. For those who want to see a genuine attempt at this, I suggest they see the current Holman Hunt exhibition at the Manchester City Art Gallery." - Bishop of Bolton, Chris Edmundson.
Browne reckons the piece makes a 'serious point' about the way Best was perceived. Perhaps that's why he got Page 3 bird Sam Cooke (don't click at work, you've been warned) to pose as one of the women at Christ's, I mean Best's feet.
The painting is on display at the Salford Art Gallery in Manchester. Personally I find the whole thing rather disturbing, I'm off to lie down.
-Bigus
Friday, November 14, 2008
Jesus is Best!
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13 comments:
Pele, good; Maradona, better; George Best.
It's art. The good bishop should leave it alone.
boobies!!!
good thing we didn't see his bishop.
Maradona was/is a cheat. He ranks below Phil Neville.
looks like jack black to me
I didn't know there were holy rollers across the pond. I hope our own holy rollers don't catch wind of this because I'm not sure which they would be more upset about--depicting an athlete as Jesus or the fact that said athlete is a soccer player (I'm sure most would agree that an American football player would be perfectly acceptable). By the way, I think a good title for this particular work would be "Pissed (in the British sense) Christ."
The blonde has fakies.
They're magnificent.
Goat. That would work a treat if the two words when joined together made any sense.
Bigus, sorry for the obscure reference. See this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ
Goat - I was going to ask if you were a Fear Factory fan, but wrong PissChrist... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demanufacture)
Huge difference between Best and Christ - we have documented evidence that Best was a miracle worker. The other guy's just some bloke we have 187th hand information about and he was likely just some carpenter's son who went off on an ego trip.
Mosher--Nah, I can't stand Joe Rogan.
Gota: OK, I don't get that link. Aside from Rogan doing a video called "From the Belly of the Beast" and Anthrax doing a track called "Belly of the Beast" on the Persistence of Time album and them being in the same rough genre...
Mosher--Joe Rogan, aside from being a douche bag, was (is?) also the host of the idiotic reality show Fear Factor. Perhaps the fact that I've had to explain two "jokes" in the same post should tell me something about my "sense of humor."
Goat - or it just points to your geographic location. Or the fact I don't watch TV much any more which would explain why I didn't connect him with Fear Factor. We don't (as far as I know) get it on this side of the Pond!
I guess I'm lucky. He seems to be a pretty US-centric experience. Mind, we have Russell Brand. I guess he's our equivalent.
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