At issue this time was Lynch's contribution to Cow Parade, a fairly silly public art project that has stationed, around town, a herd of fiberglass cows, each most decorated by a noted cultural figure. Lynch's cow was decapitated and had forks stuck in it. Reportedly, this made a small child cry, which was enough for Giuliani and Parks Commissioner Henry Stern. They ordered Lynch's cow removed. For some, this was more fodder for the argument that the current mayoral administration takes a tyrannical view of art.
Art makes no apologies, it has envelopes to push and hidebound cultural barriers to break down.
Which is, of course, what many Americans have been taught is the righteous role of the avant-garde. A survey of almost two hundred artists whose work was shown at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, the show has been installed at the Guggenheim's famous Frank Lloyd Wright spiral in uptown Manhattan and is sharing credit with London's Royal Academy of Arts. This is Rosenblum's mojo. What art audiences need to do is open their apertures of taste. I don't buy it.