Twenty years ago, Toronto police ordered a series of “degrading” paintings to be pulled from the window of a Queen Street East shop, after neighbourhood residents complained. The paintings (and their creator Ann-Marie Cheung) are pictured here in this 1991 photo by the Toronto Star’s Jim Wilkes. The paintings depicted bare-breasted, blue-tinged women bound by chains and thorny rope, with their long ethereal hair escaping restraint. Razzle Cameron, the manager of the shop Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, agreed to remove the paintings to stay out of trouble. “As an artist,” Cheung says, “it is my job to evoke an emotional response.

Source: thestar June 06, 2021 09:00 UTC