Activists Want a San Francisco High School Mural Removed, Saying Its Impact Today Should Overshadow the Artist’s Intentions

Activists Want a San Francisco High School Mural Removed, Saying Its Impact Today Should Overshadow the Artist’s Intentions

For nearly a century, a massive mural by painter Victor Arnautoff titled “The Life of Washington” has lined the hallways of San Francisco’s George Washington High School.

It may not be there much longer.

The mural “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy [and] oppression.” So said Washington High School’s Reflection and Action Group, an ad-hoc committee formed late last year and made up of Native Americans from the community, students, school employees, local artists and historians.

It identified two panels as especially offensive. One shows Washington pointing westward next to the body of a dead Native American. The other depicts slaves working in the fields of Mount Vernon.

Because the work “traumatizes students and community members,” the group concluded that “the impact of this mural is greater than its intent ever was.” They are campaigning for its removal.

The idea that impact matters more than intention has informed debates about everything from microaggressions to cultural appropriation.

But when it comes to art, should impact matter more than intention?

As historians committed to preserving our cultural heritage – and as citizens invested in the power of art to engage the public – we see the growing chorus of voices favoring impact over intention as a dangerous trend, one that makes art more vulnerable to rejection, censorship or even destruction.

Alt-Left Learns From Alt-Right, Demanding Dana Schutz Show In Boston Not Proceed

Dana Schutz, Getting Dressed All at Once, 2012. Oil on canvas, 73 1/2 × 56 1/4 in. (186.7 × 142.9 cm). Private collection, Courtesy Reiss Klein Partners. Courtesy the artist and Petzel, New York. © Dana Schutz

Alt-Left Learns From Alt-Right, Demanding Dana Schutz Show In Boston Not Proceed AOC The Wokes

After all the controversy surrounding Dana Schutz's Emmett Till painting at the Whitney Museum this spring, you might be excited to attend the free talk scheduled at Boston's ICA on Sep 14, 2017 at 6pm.  That is if the Dana Schutz show -- now open at The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston -- continues!

Following the Spring 2017 Dana Schutz controversy, the same activists now seek to shut down her Boston show entirely, making what normally is a right-wing argument justifying censorship.  America's far-left-wing argues that Schutz does not deserve a show because she is harmful to America in some way. She affronts! Schutz doesn't deserve acclaim as an artist, even stronger now because of the Whitney controversy. The demands are positively chilling, as I outline in what is admittedly a visceral response to news that activists are trying to show down the Schutz show. 

Note that in Feb. 2017 Freemuse moved the USA onto their list of Top 10 Censoring Countries in the world, putting us in the company of Russia, Pakistan and Iran. My comments were focused on censorship coming from the alt-right but the growing faction of the Sanders wing underscores the reality that demands for censorship also come from the far-left in this explosive demand that her entire show be closed. Chilling!

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Many American high schools have also banned the book from its libraries, claiming the content is too sexually graphic. The American Library Association ranked it No. 88 on its list of most frequently challenged books from 2000 to 2009. The association maintains the list to keep track of books that are subject of attempted bans or censorship.

#Pizzagate Trumpsters Track British Artist Maria Marshall At National Museum of Women in the Arts

MARIA MARSHALL, WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A COOKER (1998). COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.

#Pizzagate Trumpsters Track British Artist Maria Marshall At National Museum of Women in the Arts

“There are things here I cannot show you, that some of you aren’t going to be happy with,” says the narrator, whose #Pizzagate channel on YouTube has almost 8,000 subscribers. The tone of voice is scandalized, the language vaguely threatening. He suggests that a man seen in a video in which Marshall makes brownies for her family is a pedophile. I “don’t know what you’re going to do about it,” he says, with the implication that his followers should take their anger to the source. And then: “I’m going to make a video on it in hopes that the right person sees it.” (Note that the video may have been removed.)

#Pizzagate is not gone from America's national scene. The false-flag operation that targeted presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with a debunked conspiracy theory that Clinton joined John Podesta in running a human trafficking and child-sex ring out of a DC pizza restaurant has now swept British artist Maria Marshall into its garbage dump. 

In fact, Marshall's art will be considered 'evidence' of #Pizzagate truth by die-hard Trumpsters. 

Marshall is among the artists collected by Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's brother Tony who, with his ex-wife Heather, donated many of the most substantial works that appear in 'Revival', an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The show celebrates the institution’s 30th anniversary and will be on view through September 10.

2017 Whitney Biennial Curators Lew & Lockshave Stand Firm On 'Open Casket' Controversy

2017 Whitney Biennial Curators Lew & Lockshave Stand Firm On 'Open Casket' Controversy AOC The Wokes

Not in recent memory has a single painting caused such controversy and furor in the contemporary art world as Dana Schutz's 'Open Casket' (2016), part of New York's current Whitney Biennial. The portrait focuses on the disfigured corpse of Emmett Till, murdered in 1955 at age 14 by a Mississippi lynch mob after conflicting stories about whistling -- or 'worse' according to suggestive innuendos in court testimony -- at a white woman. 

The two Biennial creators  Christopher Lew and Mia Lockshave also become the target of criticism, and Artnet New's editor-in-chief Andrew Goldstein spoke to Lew about the controversy.

USA Joins Russia, Pakistan, Iran On Top 10 Censoring Artists Countries By Freemuse

In its annual report titled 'Art Under Threat', Danish free speech advocacy group Freemuse has documented a rise of 119 percent in violations of artistic freedom throughout 78 countries in 2016.

The non-profit divides its findings into categories, including “serious violations,” for killings, attacks, abductions, imprisonments, and threats; and “acts of censorship.” In 2016 the organization counted 840 incidents of censorship and 188 serious violations, writes ArtNet. 

Iran, responsible for 30 cases, was once again the worst offender for serious violations of artistic freedom, making it the worst violator of artistic expression since Freemuse began recording data in 2012. Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, China, Malaysia, Syria, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan also recorded dismal artistic freedom records, collectively making up 67 percent of globally recorded serious violations.

The worst practitioner of censorship in 2016 was Ukraine for its blacklist of 544 Russian films banned in the wake of the ongoing conflict between the two countries.

Notably, the USA in on the top 10 censorship list -- and now that the Trump administration is in power,  artistic censorship will surely increase in 2017.  Other offenders making up the top 10 for recorded cases of censorship were Kuwait, China, Egypt, India, Russia, Turkey,  Pakistan, and Iran. Together these countries accounted for 88 percent of global censorship cases.

Britain's ASA Rules Cara Delevingne Tom Ford Ad Not Degrading To Women

Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has refused to ban entirely a new Tom Ford fragrance ad starring Cara Delevingne but has ruled that the image cannot be displayed within 100 metres of any schools. The ad has been criticised as being ‘inappropriate’ and ‘degrading to women’.

Complaints mounted after a huge billboard appeared on Brick Lane in East London.

The ASA disagreed that the ad is ‘degrading to women’.

‘Whilst they [Tom Ford] accepted the model was nude…they believe neither her pose nor facial expression were sexually suggestive and were classical in nature, and had been depicted in art,’ ruled the official ASA statement.

A Tom Ford Beauty spokesperson argued that the advert was “sensuous, not sexual”, adding that it was displayed in a ‘hip urban neighbourhood in which commercial advertising of a similar artistic aesthetic was common’.

'India's Daughter' Documentary Of Jyoti Singh Brutal Rape May Be Banned Worldwide

'India's Daughter' Documentary Of Jyoti Singh Brutal Rape May Be Banned Worldwide

It was our intention to bring AOC readers the full length documentary ‘India’s Daughter’, previously banned in India and YouTube into India. Yesterday, April 16, India’s Supreme Court refused to lift the ban in India, with the next court date on May 27. 

Installing the BBC full video last night, I see that the documentary is now frozen on the BBC Storyville website. This critically important loss of global free speech rights and artistic freedom is nothing less than astonishing, as this acclaimed documentary is now totally caught up in India’s court system, even though it is owned by the BBC/Storyville.

Further research not reported in the Times of India recap of yesterday’s court appearances explains what happened. One of the defense attorneys (who has his own problems if you read further) alleges that the film is ‘outcome of fraud and conspiracy’ hatched by documentary maker Leslee Udwin, BBC and a private news channel with advocate VK Anand.