IN DEFENSE OF AMBIGUITY

   I know we are used to being divided, polarized into viewing things in terms of black and white (or red and blue). Remember a time when it wasn't so? Remember when "shades of grey" wasn't just a creepy soft core porn movie? It's difficult. In the art world it's been happening for a while. Philip Guston is only the latest to fall under the cancel culture ax. Where's the outrage? It is of course divided across the board.

   Here's the thumbnail of this latest art world tempest: Famous, revered by both the market and institutions, critically acclaimed, dead artist Philip Guston had a major retrospective of his work planned for a traveling show at four major museums to begin in 2021- The Tate Modern in London, The National Gallery in Washington DC, The Museums of Fine Arts in both Boston and Houston.  But something happened. Together these institutions issued a joint statement reading:    

‘After a great deal of reflection and extensive consultation, our four institutions have jointly made the decision to delay our successive presentations of Philip Guston Now. We are postponing the exhibition until a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.’ Going on to explain, ‘We plan to present a reconsidered Guston exhibition in 2024 and will work together to do so.’

   That prompted this response from Guston's family and art world scholars: "Guston’s daughter Musa Mayer quoted in The New York Times, [said] that she was ‘deeply saddened’ by the decision to postpone the exhibition, going on to declare that he ‘dared to unveil white culpability, our shared role in allowing the racist terror that he had witnessed since boyhood,’ and that ‘these paintings meet the moment we are in today. The danger is not in looking at Philip Guston’s work, but in looking away.’

    Mark Godfrey, Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, who had been working on the show, took to social media to express his dismay, reiterating Mayer’s comments about Guston’s anti-racist position and writing, as part of a lengthy statement, that: ‘Cancelling or delaying the exhibition is probably motivated by the wish to be sensitive to the imagined reactions of particular viewers, and the fear of protest. However, it is actually extremely patronising to viewers, who are assumed not to be able to appreciate the nuance and politics of Guston’s works.’ Before going on to suggest that the reasons for the postponement (which he equates to a cancellation) have little to do with Guston’s work and more to do with the institutions’ lack of faith in their curators and lack of belief in the intellect of the general public.

Godfrey’s statement echoed the thoughts of eminent art-historian Robert Storr (author of a recent biography of Guston), who said: ‘If the National Gallery of Art, which has conspicuously failed to feature many artists-of-colour, cannot explain to those who protect the work on view that the artist who made it was on the side of racial equality, no wonder they caved to misunderstanding in Trump times.’- from ArtReview Sept. 25, 2020

    Would that this was only a problem in the high end art world. The other night at Samm's super spreader birthday party a guest suggested that the time may not be right to sport my TRUMP bumper stickers with the "T" in the form of a burning cross on your car or pickup truck. The argument was that the sticker could be seen as Pro-Trump and not understood at 60 mph. THAT is exactly the idea, and dare I say the point of both my and Guston's art. When that Statey is closing the distance on my truck I want him to think that TRUMP sticker is for his guy, cutting me some slack until he blasts by and then thinks to himself, "Was that a burning cross? Was that an anti-Trump truck?" Too late. I drive home safely. If now isn't the time, when?

   Since 2012, at the beginning of the second Obama administration, when the crackers of this world became more and more emboldened by Trump and his birtherism, when unarmed black men, women and children increasing died at the hands of police, when racism seemed to be back in a big way, I started incorporating racist, Klan imagery in my work. Guston was one of my influences. When I lit a handheld, burning cross during the Foxy Boxing match of Ku Klux Klown the congregation was aghast. When I created Ameriklan in response to Trump's flag hugging stunts I was warned that people would not understand. Like it or not I am not beholding to anyone and ask no permission to display this work. Ultimately I trust my audience will grasp the nuance, the ambiguity and embrace the anti-racist message my work embodies. The museum boards that are controlled by money (much Republican) can all go fuck themselves. It's a shanda! They are failing the people with their narrow mindedness.