On 2/3/05 2:27 PM, Bentley, Andrew Charles's electrons arrived as:

> This works well when my enrollment is down, but the course is gaining in
> popularity and I'm running out of controversial exhibits.  I'm wondering what
> exhibits members of the list could suggest.


We had a good one here in L.A. back in 1966 when the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art first exhibited Ed Kienholz's "Back Seat Dodge '38."  It
showed the figures of a young couple, rendered in chicken wire, groping
amorously in the back seat of a section of a real Dodge, with a few beer
bottles littering the fake grass around it.  It created a scandal, and the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered the work removed, calling it
lewd and immoral, but the museum directors stood their ground.  Someone has
said it was the first time that art made the front page of the L.A. Times.

The installation is now in the permanent collection of the museum, and on
display.  I saw it recently, and was completely struck by how innocuous it
seemed by today's standards.  It's hard to even imagine what the big deal
was.  But I remember well the controversy back in the sixties -- I was just
out of high school and heading off to art college.  I believe the museum had
a guard on duty who only opened the back door of the Dodge for adults --
teenagers and kids were not allowed to see in.

/s

_____________________________________
S t e p h e n    N o w l i n

http://stephennowlin.v3.net

Vice President,Director,
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
626.396.2397
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http://www.williamsongallery.net
http://www.artandscience.us
http://www.pasadena-culture.net
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