from last week's press:
“moca commissioned blu, one of the world’s most outstanding street artists to create a work for the north wall of the geffen contemporary at moca.
the geffen contemporary building is located on a special, historic site. directly in front the north wall is the go for broke monument, which commemorates the heroic roles of japanese american soldiers, who served in europe and the pacific during world war II, and opposite the wall is the la veterans’ affairs hospital. geoffrey deitch (moca's director since jan 2010) explained to blu that in this context, where moca is a guest among this historic japanese american community, the work was inappropriate.”
following the whitewash of the mural, discussions arose all along the blogosphere about deitch being a gutless weasel, but hey you'd hardly expect the side of the death star to have 'darth vader sucks balls' painted on it, empires do as empires do... & as for the alleged offensive character of the mural, we advise to watch generation kill & fahrenheit 9/11. go figure!
(photo from unurth, hat tip patrick nguyen)