In Honour of the Leonardo va Vinci Exhibition opening in London & Ed's contribution to the Arts page

[DTCwordfan]

At the National Art Gallery in Canberra, a husband and wife were staring at a portrait that had them completely confused.

The painting depicted three black men totally naked sitting on a park bench. Two of the figures had black penises, but the one in the middle had a pink pen_s

The curator of the gallery realized that they were having trouble interpreting the painting and offered his assessment. He went on for over half an hour explaining how it depicted the sexual emasculation of black men in a predominately white, patriarchal society.

'In fact,' he pointed out, 'some serious critics believe that the pink pen_s also reflects the cultural and sociological oppression experienced by gay men in contemporary society.'

After the curator left, a Glaswegian approached the couple and said, 'Would you like to know what the painting is really about?'

'Now why would you claim to be more of an expert than the curator of this National gallery?' asked the couple.

'Because I'm the guy who painted it,' he replied. 'In fact, there are no black men depicted at all. They're just three Scottish coal miners. The guy in the middle went home for lunch."