----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I thought this message on CAAH-L about the Brooklyn Art Museum and Mayor
G. would be of interest to ARLISters. RAL
Ray Anne Lockard
Head, Frick Fine Arts Library
University Library System
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice: 412-648-2410
Fax: 412-648-7568
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
A book should be a ball of light in one's hands.
Ezra Pound
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 15:50:59 -0400
From: mnh <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: CONSORTIUM OF ART AND ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Brooklyn Museum and Mayor Guiliani
I hate the idea of art historians again being manipulated into a sound-bite
standoff that will only benefit the person who started it -- Guiliani. Many
in the press will report this according to old formulas and will openly play
to the strong streak of anti-intellectualism in the country. Once again, we
are being suckered into a fight that is likely to cost us dearly. We can't
let ourselves be bulldozed into playing parts in a public melodrama written
by Guiliani's campaign staff.
The important thing to consider right now is not the motives of the museum
professionals who have brought the show to the Brooklyn Museum (an
institution for which I have deep respect and high regard), but how to avoid
a political debacle. The motives that we need to keep in mind right now are
Guiliani's. We do not appear to be facing any kind of grass-roots,
spontaneous protest by museum-goers. Instead we are being baited by
professional opinion-makers who like to make public funding of the arts
their whipping boy.
Certain politicians will always be able to make hay off of art that offends.
Self-censorship is probably not the answer. That's harmful in itself and,
besides, won't work. Politicians will always be able to find some publicly
supported exhibition, somewhere, that will serve their purpose, even if the
museum community itself declines sensational exhibits or shunts them off to
venues that seem appropriate. So self-censorship is both questionable
ethically and unlikely to work as a strategy, in my opinion. On the other
hand, if politicians find that the tactic backfires on them, they might
knock it off.
As CAA members try to come up with a response, I think we should avoid
playing into the hands of the people who have manufactured this bogus
crisis. I suspect that the mayor's office would just love to see news
footage of academic art historians gathered in front of the (supposedly)
offending works, defending them on their merits. Perhaps these merits are
considerable -- I haven't seen the work. But it's not Rudy's call, is it?
If we respond by defending the work itself, we are taking the bait.
Some sectors of the public are surely as weary of this kind of grandstanding
as we are. It is so transparently self-serving that I think we would be
wise to make sure the focus stays on the mayor, and not on the exhibition.
Museums all over New York exhibit art that some people don't like -- this is
a crisis? Do voters really want a Jesse Helms wannabe calling the shots at
the Met? Why should the borough of Brooklyn pay the freight for the mayor's
cheap grab for votes?
This has gone on too long, but I hope we can avoid news footage of some CAA
member standing in front of a dung-speckled Madonna talking about form and
tonal values, or even making the perfectly sensible argument that one
respondent made recently about the cultural origins of the piece. I suspect
the press will simply report that we are saying shit isn't shit. According
to formula, the anchor (or print reporter) will carefully juxtapose this
with Guiliani's interpretation of the piece, in the interest of "balance."
I'd rather see someone posted in front of the museum, calling the mayor a
selfish ignoramus who will sacrifice one of Brooklyn's biggest assets to
promote his own career.
Martha Hagood
University of Delaware
[log in to unmask]
By the way -- cancel the exhibition? Of course not. And I'd love to see a
cartoon of Rudy "Jesse" Giuliani as the new Cultural Minister of Brooklyn.
Will he also decide who pitches for the Mets and the Yankees this weekend?
etc. etc.
