A Labour council has appeared to promote a “sickening” and “openly antisemitic” art exhibition, currently the subject of enquiries from Kent Police.
The show, titled “Drawings Against Genocide” by 70-year-old artist Matthew Collings at Joseph Wales Studios in Margate, features hundreds of drawings that critics say deploy offensive Jewish stereotypes and inflammatory symbolism.
Jewish campaign groups and politicians have condemned the artwork as “grotesque” and “dangerous”.
Among the items on display are crude depictions of figures with Stars of David surrounded by blood, and what critics describe as classic antisemitic tropes, including portrayals of baby-eating demons.
One drawing on display depicts two auctioneers at Sotheby’s, owned by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi, consuming babies with blood dripping from sharpened teeth.
Another piece shows Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy alongside banknotes and an Israeli flag, with speech bubbles reading “I am a Zionist” and “I am paid by Israel.”
A Kent Police spokeswoman confirmed officers received a report concerning the exhibition’s subject matter at 4.20pm on Saturday.
Labour-led Thanet District Council has faced criticism for apparently promoting the exhibition on its tourism website, Visit Thanet, which is operated by the authority’s tourism and culture team.
Labour-run Thanet Council has appeared to promote an art exhibition ‘targeting Zionism’ that shows Jews eating babies
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X: ZOE STRIMPEL
The webpage detailing the show’s dates and venue has since been removed from the site.
Alex Hearn from Labour Against Antisemitism said the council “should be absolutely ashamed”.
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism called it “a disgrace that the local authority is promoting this exhibition of hate” and demanded an apology.
Israel’s charge d’affaires to the UK, Daniela Grudsky, declared: “This isn’t art. It isn’t free speech. It’s antisemitism — crude, aggressive, and completely indefensible.”
Drawings Against Genocide by Matthew Collings is being shown at Joseph Wales Studios in Margate
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INSTAGRAM: MATTHEW COLLINGS
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the Labour-run council of backing “an openly anti-Semitic exhibition.”
“These pictures are dripping with sickening antisemitic tropes and all those involved in this should hang their heads in shame,” he told The Telegraph.
Dover MP Mike Tapp branded the work “antisemitic and completely unacceptable.”
Debbie Fox, interim chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, called it “an outrageous exhibition which appears to use Israel as cover for displaying imagery associated with ancient anti-Semitic tropes.”
Artist Matthew Collings has rejected the claims of antisemitism made about his work
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INSTAGRAM: MATTHEW COLLINGS
She warned: “This sort of imagery has been used to dehumanise Jews for centuries with deadly consequences.
“In the context of rising global antisemitism and attacks against Jewish communities, the exhibition is not just sickening but dangerous.”
Mr Collings, a former art critic for the Evening Standard who won a Bafta in 2000 for the Channel 4 series This is Modern Art, rejected the accusations of antisemitism.
“All my drawings are direct and clear… the target is always Zionism,” he stated, adding: “Zionism is not ‘Jews’. It is a political ideology.”
However, this is not Collings’ first brush with antisemitism allegations.
Shortly before the 2019 general election, he was selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for South West Norfolk.
He was suspended just one day later, after social media posts emerged in which he called antisemitism claims against Labour a “witch hunt” and labelled a former chief rabbi a “notorious hate-filled racist.”
Writer Zoe Strimpel, when taking issue with the show during a visit to the gallery, said Mr Collings repeatedly accused her of “defending a genocide” and dismissed her concerns as “hasbara talking points.”
GB News has approached Joseph Wales Studios and Thanet District Council for comment.