Colin McEnroe Show: What's The Problem With 'Shock' Art?
A David Wojnarowicz exhibit is now on display at Real Art Ways.
If you have not, so far, followed the story of the removal of "A Fire In My Belly" by David Wojnarowicz from the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, this piece from WNYC will bring you mostly up to speed.
In Hartford, Real Art Ways is now exhibiting the work as part of a somewhat coordinated national protest against its removal from the Smithsonian. Spaces and museums around the country are showing the work. On Thursday's Colin McEnroe Show, Will K. Wilkins of Real Art Ways will join several other arts leaders to discuss the controversy.
One question worth pursuing: does the world of art almost need this kind of push-back? Are conservative politicians like Boehner and Cantor doing art a favor? Having covered the fine arts off an on for decades in Hartford, I've noticed that passion and imperilment seem to go hand in hand. The arguments over Mapplethorpe and Carl Andre's Stone Field Sculpture made average people care and reminded art insiders that some causes are worth fighting for.
Censorship stirs the passions. Obviously, there is a harm done by the suppression of art that may well exceed the benefit of getting everybody riled up. And the values in that equation may be tested sorely if this case, in which the leaders of the Republican majority-elect in the House flexed their muscles and frightened the Smithsonian with talk of defunding, is any example.
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A conversation for one
Colin,
Here's a tripwire for you: Another right-wing P.R. (deleted)storm from a propaganda agency ("News" in CNS is a label, not any meaningful descriptor) results in you, fact-based show host, calling a "journalist" who doesn't want to be interviewed. Whokoodanode?
"I wonder if both sides did a good job with the dialog" and "I wonder if there was enough reach from the arts side"? I'm sure you're asking these pro forma, because we both know the answer: A conversation is the last thing they want.
NPRites would like to hear, every five minutes, that there's nobody on the non-arts side who has the courage to leave their cozy womb of self-reinforcing ignorance. Because the artsy types, like your guests, aren't afraid to discuss this with people who don't agree with them. And on the right, would it be too far a reach to wonder if a Republican sitting down to talk with a Smithsonian is the first step to getting primaried.
It isn't about art and governance for them. It never is.
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