Javier Milei’s government has blacklists. It can only be concluded this is not an opinion, but a fact. In fact, one only needs to look at what happened to painter Verónica Gómez recently to confirm it.
Gómez was set to participate in an art exhibition at Argentina’s Embassy in China with a piece that had nothing to do with politics. But two days before the opening, with her artworks and those by other artists already installed, the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires issued an order: everything had to be cancelled.
The reason? Gómez had previously painted works critical of Milei and his close political circle in 2024. And although the piece she was now exhibiting had nothing to do with those earlier works, she has had her card marked ever since then.
There are two controversial paintings, both of which allegedly caused offence. One is La sagrada familia (Oil on canvas, 66 x 53 cm), which features Javier Milei, Karina Milei and a painting of Conan, the President’s late dog. The second is El Rey León (Oil on canvas, 130 x 110 cm).
The artist described the latter as such in an interview with Infobae: “The child lion king is Milei. He’s clearly dressed in camouflage, like when he visited Bahía Blanca [after deadly floods] in January or February dressed like a clown and told them he wouldn’t be able to do anything for them. The snake’s eyes represent the Ley de Bases [mega-reform bill], which is how it was referred to from the beginning; the rotting citrus fruits are an allegory of regional economies. Behind the throne are three figures. The most visible is a cat – that’s [former president Mauricio] Macri. There’s also a ‘black monk’, who is sometimes [presidential advisor] Santiago Caputo, sometimes [Deregulation czar Federico] Sturzenegger.”
The artist continued: “The blonde hair [behind] is Karina’s; the headpiece she wears is from when they visited the Pope and dressed in that bizarre way, like [someone from] The Addams Family. The third eye belongs to Karina and there’s a hand reaching from behind towards her crotch, while the King’s legs are limp, like those of a puppet, not reaching the floor. There’s also an issue of stature. The feet are those we came to know thanks to Fátima Florez, and the ‘rug dog’ is, obviously, Conan.”
Gómez is also a teacher and professor of art. All of her recent works presented at the last ArteBa art fair sold out (one of which was acquired by the MALBA museum of modern Latin American art), she was a recipient of a grant from the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York and she has won numerous prizes and honours. For creating these paintings, she received threats on social media.
Curiously, a political rift has surfaced amid the censorship scandal. Argentina’s Ambassador to China Marcelo Suárez Salvia has already come under scrutiny from some libertarian quarters over his business interests in China.
The incident with the exhibition has given Milei’s troll army another excuse to target him, while at the same time promoting the candidacy of Maximiliano Postigo – a wine industry entrepreneur, also with ties to China – as his replacement.
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