Jay Heuman wrote:

>Perhaps people need to connect and express with their emotions - even if they rage against a work of art - rather than trying to repress it all. Not looking at the sculpture doesn't make the reality go away?
>
Dear Jay,
You raise a point that I have thought about and struggled with for a
long while after seeing an exhibit that left me very disturbed. I did
not feel some of the pieces engaged me, or invited my participation. I
felt they took me hostage instead with their own set agenda. I am an
artist and a curator and I do not have a problem with art that is
provocative or even raw but art is always social. Truth is social. No
individual can proclaim the truth. There has to be a dialogue for truth
is not absolute. And this is only one way in which art is participatory.
The artist also sets the "key" for the symbolic map and we journey
together. That is not to say that the viewer will get it. And even if
the viewer does not get it, good art retains its quality--it is not
lessened.  The most horrific documentary photographs could also exhibit
flawless printing technique giving it its artistic quality and
accentuating the impact of the image by its very contrast. It can move
the viewer to rage and even better inspire them to action even if it is
the declaration that this cannot happen again, ever. Perhaps I am an
idealist, but I feel that art should be transcendent. In Fischl's work
what is the symbol pointing at? Finality, hopelessness?

Just yesterday I was in Grand Central Station in NYC and there is a
display, a memorial of sorts, in the middle of one of the corridors of
posters of the missing still remain.  I think I mentioned before that I
assisted at some town meetings on rebuilding in Lower Manhattan and
families attend with large photographs of their loved ones who were
victims and the emotion is deep and gaping.

There is an hierarchy of art works. Some are museum quality. Many more
get rejected from a juried exhibit then get accepted.  The problem may
be that this was a commission and though executed by a good artist, this
particular piece did not come off. Perhaps.

Terri McNichol
Ren Associates
Princeton NJ

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