The great and the bad

A Certain Line

IMG_20180322_133633_830.jpgLife Drawing (Drawing of Blue King) (A2) 2018

The National Gallery of Art in Washington has indefinitely postponed a Chuck Close retrospective because of allegations of sexual harassment. The 77 year old paraplegic artist is alleged to have made inappropriate remarks about the bodies and sexual activities of women he invited to his studio to pose, allegations which he largely denies. Other museums, including the MoMA in NYC and the Tate Modern in London, are considering what to do about the works in their collections.

Recently, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opened an exhibition of Egon Schiele’s work with new wall labels addressing the fact that Schiele was arrested for the kidnapping and statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. He was acquitted but was eventually found guilty of “immorality” because the girl had seen some of his nude works in his studio. “Wall labels in the exhibition…

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8 thoughts on “The great and the bad”

  1. I am working up a post on the moral responsibilities of artists. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I would agree with Lisa: the artist’s personal history — and ethical standards, if there are any — are beside the point.

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  2. This is always a touchy subject, and there are people that I know who are immensely talented – brilliant, in fact, yet they have some serious ‘issues’… when someone views works by these talented-yet-‘flawed’ artists, i try to keep the personal history out of the discussion and focus on their gifts… but it’s hard, to appreciate the gift if one also knows very dark histories..

    thanks for bringing the topic into the room.. we can’t always just sweep the dirt beneath the rug!

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