Furore in the NYT article below (on the front page of the atom-based NYT)
about a piece in the upcoming Biennale which draws blindingly explicit
parallels between Giuliani and the Nazis. My experience is that as soon as
anyone compares anything to the Nazis, all useful exchange stops, but if one
wants to provoke, evoking Hitler is a cheap and reliable way to do it.
Takes no skill, however, and it disappoints and depresses me, which I'm sure
was a major concern of the artist and the Whitney.
The inclusion of this piece in the Biennale strikes me as cynical,
manipulative, dreary, and a complete abdication of curatorial or historical
judgement. And *so* 20th century Whitney Biennale-ish, isn't there
something new to be done over there?
On the other hand, I was kinda anti-Ofilli until I saw a bunch of his work
at the Carnegie international exhibition. They were beautiful, decorative,
and playful (which was true of much of that wonderful exhibition). So, I
should have learned to withold judgement until I see the piece, but this
Hans Haacke piece sounds so lumpishly obvious.
Eric Siegel
Director, Planning & Program
Development
New York Hall of Science
March 9, 2000
Signs of New `Sensation' at the Whitney Museum
By JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI
Every couple of years the Whitney Museum of American Art mounts its
Biennial, an exhibition of new and often cutting-edge American art.
This year, one work may be a little too cutting.
"Sanitation," an installation by Hans Haacke, a well-known German-born New
York artist, puts Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in the company of the Nazis,
with quotations by him written in the Fraktur script favored by the Third
Reich and the sound of jackboots marching in the background.
The artwork, which will be on view when the 2000 Biennial opens on March 23,
recalls the fury over the First Amendment issues raised by the "Sensation"
exhibition at the city-subsidized Brooklyn Museum of Art last fall when the
Mayor attacked some of the art work as "sick" and "disgusting."
The work by Mr. Haacke was commissioned by the museum, which did not know
ahead of time exactly what he would produce.
Despite the deliberate intent by Mr. Haacke to provoke the mayor and the
public, Maxwell L. Anderson, the museum's director, said that the Whitney
decided in the last few days to back the artist and take its chances with
City Hall.
"This one will hit a nerve," he said, "but I have no qualms about showing
it, though on a personal level I don't share the premise of the work, which
is to liken various public officials to Nazis."
Mr. Haacke's installation is planned around a wall lined with a row of 8 to
12 garbage cans, each with a speaker playing an audio of marching troops. On
the wall will be a reproduction of the First Amendment framed in gold and
six quotations, written in the Gothic typescript used by Hitler, from
American politicians.
Three are from Mr. Giuliani and refer to "Sensation," which included a work
that especially upset the mayor, a rendering of the Virgin Mary by Chris
Ofili that incorporated pornographic cutouts and elephant dung. In the
Haacke work, one quotation from the mayor takes issue with the hefty
subsidies given to the museum by the city: "We will do everything that we
can to remove funding for the Brooklyn Museum until the director comes to
his senses."
The other quotations are from Senator Jesse Helms, the Republican from North
Carolina, Pat Robertson, the conservative religious broadcaster, and Patrick
J. Buchanan, the candidate for the Reform Party presidential nomination, all
outspoken opponents of the National Endowment for the Arts. Senator Helms's
quote reads: "No tax fund shall be used for garbage just because some
self-appointed 'experts' have been foolish enough to call it 'art.' "
Mr. Anderson said yesterday that as a courtesy he was notifying Mr. Giuliani
of the Haacke work. Sunny Mindel, the mayor's spokeswoman, said that Mr.
Giuliani had not seen the work and had no comment.
Unlike the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney gets only a small amount of monetary
support from the city, mainly for its educational programs and not enough to
make or break any of them, Mr. Anderson said.
However, the museum is also intent on expanding at some point in the next
few years and would probably seek city money for construction.
As a survey show that is supposed to reflect the best of very new art, the
Biennial is one of the museum's most popular exhibitions. It regularly makes
headlines, but they are usually complaints about the poor quality of the
choices or the state of the art world in general. This year's version was
organized by a team of six curators from institutions around the country and
Mr. Anderson.
"There will be other work in it that people will find difficult," Mr.
Anderson said, and the museum will hang a sign at its entrance warning
visitors that some works are challenging. Mr. Anderson said that there would
be no special signs or security measures for the Haacke installation. "Other
works will set off bells for other visitors, and it just becomes
impossible," Mr. Anderson said.
The Haacke work will occupy a room of its own on the third floor of the
Whitney, as the artist requested. Several other works also have separate
rooms.
Like all other Biennial artworks, the Haacke work will have a wall label,
Mr. Anderson said, "to describe the intention of the artist as we read it."
Those labels have not been completed, but Mr. Anderson said he wrote a draft
yesterday for the Haacke installation saying that a common theme of his is
"to probe the foibles and perceived hypocrisies of the elite and powerful."
"Haacke is the master of figuring out how to make you squirm," Mr. Anderson
added.
The Biennial's curators obviously knew that last year when they invited Mr.
Haacke to participate. Like about a half-dozen other artists, Mr. Haacke was
asked simply to submit a proposal for what he would do, pending approval by
the curators.
When the exhibition catalog went to press last fall, Mr. Haacke's work was
not fully conceived, but the curators had inklings of his intentions then.
Mr. Haacke's catalog entry refers to the "Sensation" furor and says, in
part: "According to the mayor, the First Amendment and the doctrine of the
separation of church and state, embedded in the American Constitution, do
not apply to public institutions and institutions receiving public funds. He
seems to share that opinion with the Nazis, who mounted an exhibition called
Degenerate Art in Munich in 1937."
Mr. Haacke, who was born in Cologne in 1936, studied in the United States in
the 1960's and then settled in New York. He first gained notoriety in 1971
when the Guggenheim Museum canceled an exhibition of his work that was to
include documentation of the real-estate holdings of New York City
slumlords, including some museum benefactors.
The Whitney did not receive Mr. Haacke's detailed proposal until Feb. 25,
Mr. Anderson said. The curators talked about the difficulties and gave a
go-ahead. Mr. Anderson said that he then discussed the work with Leonard A.
Lauder, the museum's chairman, and Joel S. Ehrenkrantz, its president.
"Their concern was 'Are we doing the right thing?' with the controversy it
will create," Mr. Anderson said. But they gave their support.
Although the museum commissioned the work, that does not necessarily mean
that it is destined to be part of the permanent collection. "We often buy
works from the Biennial," Mr. Anderson said, "But the collection committee
will meet in spring to discuss that."
Eric Siegel
Director, Planning & Program Development
New York Hall of Science
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www.nyhallsci.org
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