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Date: 96-04-02 14:59:54 EST

          MARIETTA, Ga (Reuter) - House Speaker Newt Gingrich Tuesday
called on the Phoenix Art Museum to close an exhibition that
shows the American flag lying on the floor and draped over a
toilet.
          But the museum said it has no plans to cut short the
schedule for ``Old Glory: the American Flag in Contemporary
Art,'' which runs through June 16.
          Gingrich sharply criticized the exhibit during a speech in
his home district Monday, prompting Phoenix Art Museum director
Jim Ballinger to invite the Georgia Republican to see the
presentation for himself.
          ``I think it's a sign of how much they don't get it, that
they think looking at it will make us happier. It will just make
us angrier. The fact is they ought to close the exhibit,''
Gingrich told reporters Tuesday.
          ``I don't have to look at a U.S. flag in the toilet to know
it's wrong.''
          The controversial work is a Vietnam protest piece by pioneer
feminist Kate Millett. It was originially part of an exhibit
called the ``People's Flag Show,'' which was closed down by
police in 1970.
          A Gingrich aide said the former history professor based his
opinions on clippings of articles and photographs published by
The Arizona Republic.
          The exhibit, which opened in Phoenix March 16, contains 80
works of art that are intended to show how the image of the
American flag has been used in contemporary art since the end of
the Second World War.
          Museum officials say some of the artwork was done in
response to relevant political and social events, including
recent political attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts
and the 1989 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the
constitutionality of flag-burning.
          Gingrich, however, said the exhibition demonstrated little
more than a pathological desire by cultural elitists to
undermine traditional American values.
          ``We need things that will bring this country together, not
things to rip it apart,'' the 52-year-old House speaker said.
          The museum has received dozens of calls and letters from
local people angered by two items in the exhibit. The American
Legion staged a rally outside the institution late last month.
          But Ballinger said no complaints have come from people who
actually have visited the exhibit.
          The other cause of ire is Dread Scott's work, ``What Is the
Proper Way to Display the American Flag?,'' which was designed
so that onlookers would have to walk across an American flag in
order to sign the comment book.
       ^REUTER@