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- GRAPEVINE, Page 31Now She'll Never Get an NEA Grant
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- By DAVID ELLIS/Reported by Sidney Urquhart
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- The First Lady enjoys a good joke, but she might blush at
- the contents of a cartoon catalog that opens with her words of
- introduction. When some of the world's top satirical artists
- celebrated the first censorship-free International Cartoon
- Festival in Budapest, they were welcomed by a gracious greeting
- that Barbara Bush composed for the festival's catalog. "Art and
- humor are essential in a free society," wrote the President's
- wife. "It is wonderful to see Americans joining with the new
- democracies of our world to help educate people with the
- perspective satiric art can give." To be sure, the festival's
- artists ridiculed the communist system, but their works might
- make the First Lady's hair stand on end. Many of them, on
- display until Oct. 23, are scatological in nature; others are
- bitterly antireligious. Among the entries: a Soviet sketch
- featuring a man nailing himself to a cross and a Norwegian
- caricature of the Pope wearing a condom on his head. The
- exhibition, which was organized by WittyWorld, a U.S.-based
- magazine of international cartooning, also includes many
- sculpted depictions of male genitalia. Notes an American
- visitor: "These are people using a sexual vocabulary for the
- first time. It's like a kid screaming dirty words." Ironically,
- the current censorious frenzy inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe
- would make it nigh impossible for Mrs. Bush to be associated
- with such an event in the U.S.
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