Museum of Modern Art complicit in recent artist arrests
ARTISTpres
Art care about artists being arrested?
by Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
In the past 14 months over 150 artists have been
arrested, handcuffed and had their original fine art
confiscated by the N.Y.P.D. Many of these arrests
and confiscations have taken place on Fifty-Third or
Fifty-Fourth Streets, in the immediate vicinity of the
Museum of Modern Art.
In the past two weeks there have been at least five
artists arrested while displaying their art along the
museum's rear wall, on Fifty-Fourth Street. The
Museum, when contacted by the police, has refused to
say that they'd prefer these artists not be arrested.
The Museum has also refused to express any opinion
whatsoever on the city's policy of violating artists'
rights to free speech and expression, due process or
freedom from illegal seizures of their property.
If artists were being similarly arrested in China, in
Haiti, in Bosnia or anywhere else, the Museum could
be expected to forcefully and loudly protest such
human and artistic rights violations. If one artist was
unfairly denied their N.E.A. grant or if a community
board removed a tax-funded sculpture from a public
place, the museum could be expected to cry out at
such censorship.
Yet, with artists routinely handcuffed and arrested on
their very doorstep, the Museum of Modern Art has
no comment, no policy and no objection. One can only
surmise that they approve of such arrests and may in
fact be directly or indirectly implicated in them.
This at first may seem like a shocking conclusion.
Isn't the Museum of Modern Art the great champion
of artistic freedom and expression? Is it not the very
temple where artistic genius is worshipped, and
Twentieth Century artists are considered to be gods?
Isn't the Museum of Modern Art the institution that
spends tens of millions each year carefully preserving
and protecting the fragile creations of Twentieth
Century artists?
Or, could it be more accurate to describe the Museum
of Modern Art as the Museum of Officially Sanctioned
State Art? or The Museum of Protecting the
Investments of Corporate America's Richest Art
Collectors? or The Museum of Profitability and Power
Masquerading as High Culture?
If Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol
were displaying their art on Fifty-Third or Fifty-
Fourth Streets, they'd also be arrested and have their
art confiscated, damaged and destroyed. We can only
imagine the outcry and outrage of the Museum's
curators, directors and wealthy patrons.
Yet, when this happens to living contemporary artists
whose works are not as yet in the collection of the
Museum or its patrons, there is not a word of
objection. Are these artists and their creations so
unworthy of recognition that they can be disposed of
like garbage? Does their being unrecognized or
uncollected by the Museum negate their rights of free
speech and expression? Can such a renowned and
respected cultural institution, dedicated to promoting
the very idea of Modern Art, stand silently by while
artists are taken away in handcuffs right outside their
door?
I call on the Museum of Modern Art to immediately
take a public position on this issue. If they do not
approve of these violent and unconstitutional actions
against artists, let them say so.
If on the other hand, they approve of these arrests of
artists and the confiscation and destruction of art, let
them publicly admit it. They can then change their
name to The Museum of the Destruction of Modern
Art.
The Museum attracts millions of visitors to New York
each year, who then spend hundreds of millions of
dollars in this city. On its board of directors are some
of America's wealthiest and most influential citizens.
The City of New York can not fail to take note of such
an important institution's policy on this issue. In fact,
they already have. What else can explain the police
department's policy of routinely arresting the artists
seeking protection in the Museum's shadow?
I call on all artists to join me in protesting this
shameful silence by the Museum. I also call on all
New Yorker's and visitors to New York, to boycott
the Museum, its profitable gift store and its products
that are for sale in other stores around the world.
Let them know that their silence is deafening in its
implications. Let them know you want to hear them
crying out like the woman in Picasso's Guernica at the
pain, humiliation, loss and suffering of New York's
artists whose human, constitutional and civil rights
are being violated on their doorstep.
For more information about A.R.T.I.S.T. or
what you can do to help in this protest, call:
Robert Lederman (718) 369-2111.
To express your opinion to the Museum, call
(212) 708-9766 (fax: 212 708-9889) or write:
Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10019 Att: Museum Director.
va...@cwu.edu
even though they had broken no laws?