They quickly became adept at targeting transgressive symbols impossible to explain in a sound bite. And sometimes even the art world seemed embarrassed by this art. When Frohnmayer defunded Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller in 1990, the faultlines of the art world became even more visible. Call it the Bad Apples Defense. We are not in favor.
Liberals keep caving, and the right-wingers never do.
When Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center and its director, Dennis Barrie, went on trial in 1990 for refusing to remove seven pictures from the same Mapplethorpe show, their lawyers defended them successfully by getting testimony from museum professionals about why the photos are art. Now, of course, the right-wing line is that the Cincinnati jurors were forced to say that this was art. So said a woman from the Catholic League during a recent debate on NY1. A few days later, the story popped up in a William F. Buckley Jr. column. The real debate here is about a hundred years old, and by now the art world ought to know which side it's on.