Artwork removed from National Portrait Gallery after row over Churchill’s role in Bengal famine
Turner prize winner Helen Cammock withdraws piece after 50 peers criticise claim former PM ‘starved people’
TL;DR
- Helen Cammock's artwork 'The Persistence' was removed from the National Portrait Gallery.
- The removal followed criticism concerning the piece's depiction of Winston Churchill's role in the 1943 Bengal famine.
- Fifty peers, including Churchill's grandson Sir Nicholas Soames, objected to a line in the video installation.
- The line in question compared Churchill's actions to Oliver Cromwell's "wilful starvation of the Indian population."
- Historian Andrew Roberts described the installation's statement as an "ideologically motivated rant."
- The Telegraph called the artist's assertion about Churchill causing the famine "incorrect."
- The National Portrait Gallery stated the artwork was removed at Cammock's request.
- Cammock defended artists' right to question, challenge, and explore ideas and histories.
- Academics debate Churchill's role in the famine, with differing views on its causes.
- The National Portrait Gallery emphasized the work was presented as art, not documentary, and views didn't necessarily reflect the gallery's own.