Marcus Harvey’s ’sick, disgusting’ painting of Myra Hindley (1998)

ADP magazine 2(3): Crackdown / Loonied out | Published 01 September 2010 Page 5 of 5

Marcus Harvey. Portrait of Myra Hindley (1995).

In the spirit of the above analysis, we can say that the marks made by the vandals were indexical signs that communicated a) the public’s hatred of Myra Hindley, and b) the public’s disapproval of Marcus Harvey’s painting of Myra Hindley. When Marcel Duchamp discovered the glass from which his Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even was made had been shattered while being transported, he decided to accept the damage rather than to attempt a restoration. This, in my view, is what Marcus Harvey and the painting’s owner, Charles Saatchi, should have done. The work would thus have incorporated another layer of sign, adding to and completing its social meaning. Marcus Harvey would have been seen to accept the public’s disapproval of his use of Myra Hindley’s image.

Another article would be required to explore in full the press comments provoked by Myra, but one particularly crass response was by journalist Julie Burchill, the professional controversialist and darling of the right, famous for her aggression and perverse opinions. Entitled "Art and Immorality", it appeared in the Modern Review (November 1997) and was reprinted in the Guardian. In her usual reckless manner, Burchill combined a dozen different news stories to make spurious connections. She linked Marcus Harvey’s painting and works by other artists (notably Jake and Dinos Chapman) depicting children to pornography and the suffering of real children while in "care" at the hands of abusers currently being revealed in court cases. The artists were accused of "celebrating paedophilia", but, as Jake and Dinos Chapman have pointed out, their sculptures, adapted from shop-window dummies, are examples of mannequin abuse not child abuse.

In the case of Marcus Harvey, Julie Burchill attacked remarks he made about Myra Hindley, rather than analysing his painting. Julie Burchill’s moral posturing seemed motivated by a hunger for headlines rather than by compassion for children. Furthermore, her tirade revealed a loathing for the visual arts: "The brainless babble of a visual person (who are by definition stupid: painting, that’s what children do because they can’t write)." To which one is tempted to reply: "Verbal abuse, that’s what writers resort to when they discover they can’t draw or paint."

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