Marcus Harvey

Censoring provocative art is the worst advert for 2012

Critics of Harvey have long argued that any portrait of Hindley was bound to cause controversy

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/aug/26/art.olympics2012

When the painting of Myra was featured in a promotion video for the London 2012 Olympics advertisement in Beijing . The then Prime minister David Cameron and London mayor Borris Johnson ask for the image to be removed.

Perhaps they should have thought to ask the then-director of the Royal Academy, Sir Norman Rosenthal, who argued that Harvey's painting was the single most important work of the Sensation exhibition and fought so hard to include it.

Myra, Margaret and me 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/21/marcus-harvey-margaret-thatcher

Since the time M Harveys Myra painting was show at the YBA show Sensation in 1997 its has always been highly controversial. At the time of the first show the work caused massive public outrage and people even threatened to kill people if the work was not removed from the show, it was vandalised and defaced but was restored and put back on display with its own security guards and a perspex shield. Harvey says that he did not expect the kind of public reaction he and the work got.

A media circus Surrounded the YBA at the time and was it not for the high profile Sarchi buying the work and showing it would of got the reaction it got as it would not of been displayed in such a high profiled show. M Harvey says it was not intended to be shown to so many and it was a shock it was. Some say it was the stand out piece on show at the exhibition,  it highlights the contrys  freedom of expression perfectly and we should relish(is this the food) the fact.