--------------------- Forwarded message: From: [log in to unmask] 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@