Thursday, December 2, 2010

Vote with your feet


Blake Gopnik, in the Washington Post, writes a couple of smart paragraphs about a piece of art being pulled from a show after a group kicked up a fuss. He makes a few great points.... that the role of the museum is to broaden our scope, and that the role of the curator is to bring together works that challenge us to think, to form opinion, to accept or reject. He also points out that the appropriate form of rejection is to walk away, to withdraw your attention - not to censor or demand censorship. We've gone to war with countries that censor their people heavily, because such lacks of freedom are contrary to the ideals these United States were founded upon.

Think about it... when our interest in a TV show wanes, the series gets canceled. Same goes for any consumer product - think ThighMaster, or then again, maybe don't :-)

Museums are full of art... some great, some not so. If you don't like something, folks, just walk away. There's bound to be something you do like in the next room.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113007227.html?wprss=rss_print/style

Image: Ed Ruscha's OOF, 1962/3, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Photo by Sam Hunter.