Protests Over Governor-General’s Award

“Some protests were logged yesterday with the Canada Council for the Arts, which recently selected the controversial artist Istvan Kantor (a.k.a. Monty Cantsin) as a winner of the Governor-General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Kantor gained notoreity (and a lifetime ban from the National Gallery in Ottawa) for one specialty, using his own blood to paint on gallery walls.” But Council officials insist that the number of protests they’ve heard is minimal, and that media interest is out of proportion to the actual size of the controversy.