The Orange Order has been accused of censoring art – after demanding the removal of a painting from Northern Ireland’s biggest visual arts show over a dispute about a square inch of canvas.
The Royal Ulster Academy has refused to bow to demands to remove an award-winning painting from the 134th Annual Exhibition at the Ulster Museum, despite complaints from the loyalist Protestant group who say it depicts their members wearing Ku Klux Klan clothing.
Christian Flautists Outside St Patrick’s was the last painting by acclaimed Irish artist Joseph McWilliams, who died last month. He was posthumously awarded The Irish News Prize for the work.
The Orange Order has complained that a small blurred section “depicts a number of Orangemen wearing Ku Klux Klan clothing”. They deny this ever happened, accusing the artist of “deliberate demonisation”.
Academy president Denise Ferran said the work would not be removed over the disputed square inch of a canvas, as it would be an attack on artistic freedom.
“I never noticed this tiny little corner of the picture. I saw swirls of flags and bystanders. You really need a huge magnifying glass to spot it,” she told The Independent. “It could well be what they say they see in it. But they could also be Catholic penitents or an enclave of cardinals. It’s splodges of paint.”
The painting depicts the Young Conway Volunteers on an annual Twelfth parade in north Belfast, on July 12 2012. Earlier this year, 13 members of a loyalist flute were convicted of provocatively playing a sectarian tune outside a Catholic church during the march.
The academy has now put up notices saying some people may be offended by the exhibition. Dr Ferran said: “What we will not do is take the picture down. Once you go down that road, the problems will never cease.”
She added: “I’m delighted we’re not a moribund crowd of old stooges. We are causing provocation, which is what an academy of artists should be doing.”
A spokesman for the Orange Order said putting up the disclaimers was a “necessary step and at least some acknowledgement of the genuine concerns of the institution and many in the wider community to the inaccurate and misleading nature of the painting in question”. He added that the organisation had “no hesitation in condemning the extremist views of the KKK and to imply any comparison is as mischievous as it is insulting.”
