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Via TNC comes the story of a painting so offensive to some folks that a campaign of intimidation was launched to censor the work and remove it from public view.

Here is the painting that offended the fragile sense of self-identity of the cowards who demanded its removal:

It is IMHO, a very accurate representation of the Rebel Flag and everything it has come to represent in its almost 150 years as a symbol of treason and terror. It is Confederate History Month distilled to a powerful image.

It was created by Stanley Bermudez, an art professor at Gainesville State College in Georgia. It was part of a faculty exhibit, but a campaign of intimidation (an echo of the images in the work) succeeded in getting the painting censored and removed.

The local paper tells the story:

“This is very much what I feel and think about when I see that flag. It’s just my personal feelings about it. It’s an accumulation of the things I’ve seen, studied and read over the years,” Bermudez said.

“When visiting the KKK website, the (Confederate) flag is used often. Recently, the KKK has had public meetings near (my home), which scares me because of their anti-Latino immigration sentiments.

Although the finished piece is how Bermudez sees the flag, not everyone agrees with his views. Public response to the piece was so strong that Gainesville State’s administration asked that the picture be removed from the faculty showing in the Roy C. Moore Art Gallery on the college’s Oakwood campus, Bermudez says. [snip]

The college declined to share with The Times any of the feedback that prompted the removal of the painting; however, at least one “Southern heritage” website described the painting as “despicable” and prompted visitors to contact Martha Nesbitt, the college’s president, about the picture. Site administrators even posted her e-mail address and telephone number.

In the article Bermudez comes across as a man of great grace and integrity. His students are lucky to have him as a teacher. It is a shame that a group of neo-Confederate thugs could have the art removed because hurt their delicate feelings, tweaked their fragile egos and intruded on their desire for a historical narrative free from the inconvenience of facts, reason, integrity and honesty. And yet, their response is also a fitting tribute to the power of Bermudez’s art. Their auto-response of hate, ignorance and intimidation is what the Confederacy was and is all about–and their reaction is just another iteration of the Confederacy depicted in the painting.

Their fear of the painting and their reaction to it speaks to its power of art and how art always terrifies cowards.

Cheers

When art terrifies cowards…Post + Comments (122)