The similarities are obvious. A stark black-and-white photograph of choreographer Bill T. Jones takes one back some 10 years. Here is a portrait of chiseled masculinity. Clad simply in white briefs, Jones projects the image of a lithe, sensuous artist. It's what photographer Arnie Zane does so well -- capturing both the physical and emotional beauty of the body.
The current Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) exhibit, Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane, is an unexpected and unplanned homage to the CAC's controversial 1990 show Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment. Like Mapplethorpe, Zane also lost his life to AIDS. More importantly, both artists had independent visions of the human form. Still, these Zane photographs are slight compensation to local arts supporters who believe the CAC should have formally recognized the 10th anniversary of an event that remains Cincinnati's defining cultural symbol.
"No doubt that it (Mapplethorpe) was a landmark event in the United States, and its effects are still being felt," says Joseph C. Thompson, director of Mass MOCA, a contemporary art museum in North Adams, Mass.
CAC Director Charles Desmarais' decision not to recognize the Mapplethorpe anniversary with a special exhibition or symposium has been debated. He made his case in CityBeat (March 30). It's clear the majority of CAC staff side with him. They don't want to look back 10 years. They want to keep the CAC's focus on the artistic here and now. Basically, they feel there are better uses of the CAC's time and resources than some Mapplethorpe-inspired retrospective of censored art.
There are millions of other reasons why the CAC chose not to bring Mapplethorpe back into the public eye. The CAC is fighting to complete its new building capital campaign. A good deal of money still needs to be raised to make its Zaha Hadid-designed home a reality. It would be fiscally foolish to risk losing one potential donor with a controversial exhibit. That's what museum directors do. They balance artistic decisions against business reality. The problem is when money dictates all decisions.
Thompson knows all about the difficulties of capital campaigns. He helped to raise $31.4 million to created Mass MOCA's 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings, opened in 1999.
"I find that most donors who are willing to make significant contributions are willing to ride with an institution through its ups and downs," Thompson says. "I would be surprised if money was that fragile. And if so, it's not the best money.
"But if the Cincinnati Contemporary Art (Center) is anything like our museum," he says, "you get so busy raising the next dollar and finding the important artist to put on public view that you can't afford to look backwards."
It's easy to play the armchair curator and contemplate possible Mapplethorpe anniversary shows. Maybe something like Ten Years of Controversial American Art. Works by Barbara Kruger, Kiki Smith and Andres Serrano could be grouped together. Video testimonials of censored artists might play throughout galleries. There could even be a local timeline looking at Cincinnati's ongoing debate with artistic expression. Artist Ellen Zahorec might remount Immaculate Misconceptions, her 1996 Northern Kentucky University exhibit that centered around artists' interpretations of their childhood misconceptions about Catholicism and how those teachings affected their artwork.
The CAC bills itself as Cincinnati's "Modern" art museum. Retrospectives in and of themselves aren't against CAC's mission. Really, it's just a question of asking: "Do you think Mapplethorpe is worth remembering?" Maybe it's not up to the CAC to talk about Mapplethorpe. Maybe that's for the media, cultural critics and academics. Of course, I'm astounded by the clumsy silence regarding the issue. Desmarais' own answers sound defensive. The Enquirer completely ignored the Mapplethorpe anniversary, despite the fact that the exhibit attracted an avalanche of letters to the editor in 1990.
Their silence pretty much leaves the discussion up to CityBeat. At least one entity in town still considers Mapplethorpe worth talking about.
