My good friend Currado Malaspina is no stranger to controversy but each time he runs afoul of the custodians of good taste he reacts with the stupefaction of a waif tugging on Santa's beard.
Improbable as it seems, he thinks of himself as an abstract painter in the tradition of a Miro or a Mondrian or a Pollock or a Still. With all his loaded subject matter, Currado believes that the primacy of form is his only guiding principle.
This, of course, is laughable.
Sure, when his work is flipped upside down and seen from afar through a cloudy lens I suppose the shapes and colors all add up into a coherent whole. But please, if ever there were an explicit narrative designed to offend it's in his gorgeously smutty Baba Kama Sutra.
For all his pretenses and justifications this stuff is denigrating, not only to women but to the basic concept of respectable lechery.
The work has been widely reproduced and predictably the public's reaction has been outrage, vilification and disgust.
Strange as it sounds this never fails to hurt Malaspina's feelings. I can't really tell if he's being sincere but he claims that all he wants is a fair hearing in order to explain his ideas.
Well Canada has come to the rescue and he will finally have a chance to mollify his many bitter critics.
CKCC, as part of its ongoing series of profiles and interviews with international artists will devote a full hour to Malaspina's provocative book. It will be an uphill battle for my besieged colleague since the network, with an eye toward ratings, loaded the dice with this very unflattering full page advertisement.
Having known Malaspina for as long as I have I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But then again, I love him.
And then again ... I'm not a woman.
And then again ... I'm not a woman.
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