We will not give Kenny Kunene oxygen over painting - DA

2 August 2016

Pretoria - The Democratic Alliance says it will not comment on the controversial artwork posted by businessman Kenny Kunene on social media as they don't want to give him the attention he craves.

"Kenny Kunene, we try not to give him oxygen because he clearly seeks attention," party spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme said.

"We fully respect the right of the artist to paint. We don’t agree with the message of the painting but we are not going to be like the ANC and march to galleries and take people to court.

Kunene took to social media to show a painting which displayed Mmusi Maimane, James Selfe and Helen Zille with their private parts exposed. Various comments were made with many saying it was in bad taste. Van Damme said as much as they didn't agree with the content, they respected the artist's rights to be provocative.

"Our base principle about art is the same response we gave with the Jacob Zuma painting. Artists have freedom of artistic expression. It's a constitutional right and they are allowed to paint anything they want," she said.

Van Damme added that political art was supposed to be provocative and stir debate among its citizens. She said all people were entitled to have opinions about paintings but that should not trump other peoples' right to express themselves.

"It's OK to take offence but it doesn't mean an artist can't express themselves," she said.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.