Thatcher years art show opens

Thatcher years art show opens

Sean Landers has caricatured Thatcher as Ronald McDonald

Baroness Thatcher is portayed as Ronald McDonald and a breastfeeding Madonna in an exhibition featuring young British artists' views of her years of power.

Turner Prize winners Keith Tyson and Martin Creed are among those who have contributed to the show, which looks at the former Tory prime minister's effect as an icon.

Artist Tara Howard, who set up the exhibition, said it was neither "an attack nor an homage" to the Baroness.

The show, which opens at London's Blue Gallery on Wednesday, also features a three foot statue of Lady Thatcher made from coal dust.

A model of a dog standing on a map of the Falkland Islands has been painted in the colours of Sea Harrier aircraft, while a picture of two monarch butterflies mating is said to reflect her interest in them as a child.

Lady Thatcher was invited to the opening of the show, but was with her husband Denis in South Africa.

'The legend'

Ms Howard said Baroness Thatcher was "a wonderful, controversial and surprisingly complex subject".

She continued: "I hope that the works in this show will go some way towards deconstructing the legend of Margaret Thatcher."

Organisers say it is a good time to look back at Thatcher's legacy

A spokesman for the show said it had been planned for two years.

"A lot of the artists involved are serious artists, and it has taken a long time to schedule it.

"The whole exhibition is looking at Thatcher and what she means graphically and as an icon."

He added: "Some of it is conceptual and some of it is more traditional, more lake portraiture - though none of it is 'traditional portraiture'."

'Look back'

The organisers said that Lady Thatcher was well known all over the world and her notoriety made her the perfect subject.

"Also, her powerbase is waning, so it seems a good time to look back."

The exhibition follows the jailing in February of 37-year-old Paul Kelleher, who decapitated a statue of Baroness Thatcher with an iron bar.

The exhibition spokesman said that if it were not for the fact that Mr Kelleher was still serving his sentence "we would have invited him to the opening of the show".

The exhibition, called Thatcher, is at The Blue Gallery, in Great Sutton Street, London, and remains open until May 17.