Controversy in museums

[Lynda Kelly]

Hi all, has anyone know of some recent case studies in museums, galleries, science centres etc of controversial exhibitions?? Fiona and I are keen to update the Contested Sites project as part of a book we're working on. Some other information can be found on the Resources page of this website, as well as a set of published papers.

[Sophie Lieberman]

there is a little exhibition in Paris that is causing a stir and even made it into the Oz this weekend. A link to the Le Monde article (http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2008/04/11/des-photographies-...) outlines the controversy neatly. for those who don't read french it is a case of colour photos taken by a collaborator-photographer in paris after 1940 that belie the mythology of the troubled frances des annees noirs (dark years) of the second world war.

the narrative of French suffering is so pervasive that the photos that show parisiens enjoying themselves over the summer are dismissed outright as propaganda - the mairie de paris has taken down all the posters for the exhibition in public places.

S

[David Greenfield]

There was the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit of photography that created a stir with the NEA here in the USA (National Endowment for the Arts). With a conservative administration in Washington, anything that challenges the status quo or people's assumptions. The government takes a very narrow approach to defining art.
About 8 or 9 years ago there was an interesting and powerful exhibition about modern sweatshops here in the US. Although it presented a pretty balanced view of the situation- workers and owners, one was able to see that the exhibition sided with the workers (it opened up not long after a particularly ugly situation was exposed in Los Angeles). Nobody wanted to support or host the exhibition because of fear of loosing support from various clothing companies (Guess, Bebe, etc) who have been exposed to use these types of shops. The only museum that was willing to exhibit it was at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. It was a well-designed exhibition and I was sorry to see that no other museum was willing to host the show.

[Reciproque]

There's one temporary exhibition in the Louvre Museum, Paris, called "Angel of metamorphosis", by Jan Fabre. Many poeple find it controversal and inappropriate in such a temple of masters paintings - for my part, I've found it interesting.
More here :
- Jan Fabre at the Louvre
- Jan Fabre in Wikipedia

[Vanessa Smyth]

Hi Lynda

This is a great site for those of us on a steep learning curve ... all sorts of interesting ideas and useful links.

Here are a few suggestions on recent controversies

-the Barbican in London ran a controversial exhibition last year with an 'over 18's' tag called 'Seduced' which was promoted as an art-historical exhibition looking at changes in the concept of censorship from antiquity to now ... Pompeii to Mapplethorpe

- a new Creation Museum in Kentucky is pitting the scientists against the creationists

- there is an article ( http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/m&s/Issue%2014/bonnellsimon.pdf ) in the July 2007 University of Leicester's 'Museum and Society' journal about 'difficult' exhibitions which discusses two recent Swedish exhibitions - one about AIDS and the other about the Holocaust.

[Renae Mason]

Of course there's the new Bill Henson show that recently got canned, but you'd be all over that I imagine!

[Vanessa Smyth]

If you are following the Henson case, there is a Facebook group 'Philistines get your hands off Bill Henson photography' in the Fine Arts subgroup which as of today had over 3000 members ... interesting case study on the role of the media in developing a museum controversy and more so of web 2.0 social media networks amplifying it - 65 posts to date many of which are links from press reports, Crikey etc .

[Elizabeth Merritt]

There was the extensive controversy over the exhibit of the Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in which veteran's groups clashed with historians over the interpretive content. This has been extensively documented. http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/enola/resources/

The "Sensation" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997 caused a huge ruckus with both the local Catholic community, which objected to the inclusion of Chris Ofili's work "Holy Virgin Mary" which used elephant dung as a material, and with Mayor Guiliani, who threatened to yank city funding from the museum. Issues included transparency and appropriate level of curatorial control by the lender, Charles Saatchi. This is documented in the book "Unsettling Sensation: Arts-Policy Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum Art Controversy "

Currently there is a lot of debate over the "Body Worlds" and "Body Works" exhibit circulating in the US, concerning whether there was informed donor consent for the human bodies used in the exhibits (there are accusations that some are executed Chinese prisoners), and the basic issue of using human bodies as sculptural material at all.

[Angelina Russo]

Yes, I remember the Enola Gay controversy! There was an interesting boook published in 1999, Dubin, S. (1999) Battle Royal: The Final Mission of the Enola Gay in Displays of Power. Controversy in the American Museum from the Enola Gay to Sensation. New York University Press pp 186-226.

This particular chapter documents the struggle, inherently a formalist vs analyst struggle, which surrounded the proposed exhibition. In 1994 : The Crossroads: The End of World War 11, The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War, eventually opened as a formalist exhibition entitled “The Last Act.”

[Michael Chappell]

Hi Lynda,

I'm just joining the site, but in my own research, I came across several (+10) discussions in the form of articles or books regarding the NMAI from the Native American perspective. There is also an online exhibit on the North Carolina Collection Gallery at UNC over teaching evolution in North Carolina Schools. And I thought I heard something about an exhibit on waterboarding somewhere more recently.

[Tracy]

Hi Linda, This is my first ever blog reply. I am new to all this blogging but learning fast. I just really wanted to say hello to someone else who also has an interest in museums and the issues we face. Regards Tracy.

[Sheila Carey]

Hi -- I just came across this article about an exhibit that has just opened. It should be interesting to see the reaction to this exhibit.
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART61348.html

I notice that on your list you mentioned the controversy over the Royal Ontario Museum's Into the Heart of Africa exhibit years ago. There has been a substantial amount written about that, including a book called "Contested Representations". (which I haven't read, I just mention it because it seems a detailed study)