Word: rightness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Should that speck of elephant dung be moved up or down on the Holy Mother's breast? To the left or right of that pornographic snippet in the background? These are the kind of questions New Yorkers got to ask starting Oct. 2, when the Brooklyn Museum of Art opened the exhibit "Sensation" to the public...
Giuliani's position is simple enough, and right on the ball. But it masks a simmering brew of constitutional, moral and even religious questions. Sound a lot like "Piss Christ" or Robert Mapplethorpe all over again? The same issues boiled over then, and the same issues continue to define America's bitter culture war today. While it may be tempting, therefore, for those of us who support the mayor to just render due kudos and go home, perhaps we should take advantage of this fresh opportunity to explain why he was right--maybe even to propose a just accommodation...
Free speech will be at the core of the debate, since the museum filed its suit against the city on First Amendment grounds. But it shouldn't be. The First Amendment is indeed about the right of expression. But it is not about any chimerical right to have others subsidize that expression. As long as we keep this crucial distinction in mind, there should be no problem with the government insisting on certain criteria as a precondition of funding--those who find the stipulations stifling can seek money elsewhere and leave the matter at that...
...intellectual or artistic value, the state itself is making that determination--and this is the very evil a neutral First Amendment was supposed to guard against. So proponents of the mayor can still support his tough stand on a painting that callously juxtaposed the scatological with the divine, right? So it seems. Until, that is, they learn that Chris Ofili is a Roman Catholic who uses elephant feces as a symbol of fertility. On what possible grounds can we then deny funding to his affirmative interpretation of Christianity...
...Imagine a canvas covered with swastikas. The artist insists the symbols are not meant as an attack on the Jews, but rather as the celebration of a Nazi industrial policy that achieved full employment while permitting women to stay home. Would we still not have every right to oppose the use of public funding in displaying such work? I believe we would...