David Ross, chairman, MFA in Art Practice, School of Visual Arts, New York
The twitterati have been piling on me (retweeting an ARTnews magazine tweet), over one comment in CultureGrrl‘s Friday post that took issue with Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post. He had called for the resignation of the Secretary of the Smithsonian over the “Hide/Seek” affair and stated that G. Wayne Clough‘s decision to remove David Wojnarovicz‘s video from the National Portrait Gallery’s show had “ignited fury in the museum
world.”
I had responded:
While some museum professionals may be privately simmering (and have shown the video removed by the NPG),
the “fury” has been emanating chiefly from gay activists and some art
writers.
Until receiving David Ross‘ BlogBack, published below, I have not heard or read any publicly expressed “fury” from the museum world.
But ARTnews’ construing what I said to mean that I believe no one else is “upset” about Congress’ pernicious art intervention is a misquotation and distortion. I believe that most of the artworld is concerned and upset about the video’s removal. I’m concerned and upset. But describing the reaction of the museum world as “fury” is, to me, yet another example of the over-the-top rhetoric that has inflamed this debate, to everyone’s detriment.
Another example is another tweeter’s characterizing my stance on “Hide/Seek” as “sycophancy veer[ing] toward blinkered bigotry.” My repeated calls for “Hide/Seek” to tour the country or, failing that, for other museums to mount their own gay-themed shows are not the words of a bigot. But people are now name-calling, based on what ARTnews tweeted, instead of what I actually wrote.
“HIde/Seek” is not “Mapplethorpe” (at least not yet). One work, which had been posthumously and problematically altered by the show’s curator (who said he received approval from the artist’s estate), has been excised. The show is up and the Smithsonian vows that it will remain so. If the show is hit with a legal challenge and/or is shut down, you can recruit me into the “furious” camp.
I had expected that some principled people would misinterpret my nuanced position. I had also anticipated that reasonable people would disagree.
One of the latter is David Ross, who is former director of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is currently chairman, MFA in Art Practice, School of Visual Arts.
Ross writes:
I disagree with you, fully.
Clough has behaved disgracefully, and indeed, he should not continue to
run the Smithsonian. He has singlehandedly set back the clock to the
days of Culture Wars. But more important, he made it clear that he has
no understanding of or sympathy for the management of an art museum—or any museum for that matter.I know you are trying to hold the moderate position, and while
I understand your rationale, I could not disagree more vehemently with
your critique of the spot-on WaPo column.