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- <text id=89TT3123>
- <title>
- Nov. 27, 1989: American Notes:The Arts
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Nov. 27, 1989 Art And Money
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 35
- American Notes
- THE ARTS
- Compromising Position
- </hdr><body>
- <p> John E. Frohnmayer, the new chairman of the National
- Endowment for the Arts, learned something last week about the
- art of compromise. Earlier, Frohnmayer had announced that he
- was withdrawing a $10,000 grant to support "Witnesses: Against
- Our Vanishing," a planned New York City exhibition of artworks
- inspired by the AIDS crisis. The show was "political rather than
- artistic in nature," Frohnmayer said. He cited a catalog essay
- that denounced North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and
- California Congressman William Dannemeyer, both vocal opponents
- of gay rights, and New York's John Cardinal O'Connor.
- </p>
- <p> The decision followed last summer's dispute over two shows
- supported by the NEA and the subsequent action by Congress
- forbidding the endowment to promote "obscene" art. By snubbing
- the AIDS exhibit, Frohnmayer appeared to be signaling that the
- NEA would now shy away from controversial work. That led to a
- storm of criticism from the art world and a decision by
- conductor Leonard Bernstein to refuse a White House offer of a
- 1990 National Medal of Arts. Just hours before the show was to
- open last week, Frohnmayer reversed himself, agreeing to release
- the grant. The offending catalog, however, is being funded
- separately.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-