Gallery owner attacked for Iraq abuse ar

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Gallery owner attacked for Iraq abuse ar
11
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 11:46am

So much for freedom of speech....


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Prisoner%20Abuse%20Painting


Sunday, May 30, 2004 · Last updated 7:59 a.m. PT


Gallery owner attacked for Iraq abuse art


By LISA LEFF
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison - a black eye delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to a painting that depicts U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.


The assault outside the Capobianco gallery in the city's North Beach district Thursday night was the worst in a string of verbal and physical attacks directed at Lori Haigh since the artwork was installed at her gallery on May 16.


San Francisco police are investigating and have stepped up patrols around the gallery. But Haigh decided to close the gallery indefinitely, citing concern for the safety of her two children, ages 14 and 4, who often accompanied her to work.


Guy Colwell's painting, titled "Abuse," depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded woman.


The painting was part of a show of the Berkeley artist's work that mostly featured pastel-colored abstracts.


Colwell stopped by the gallery Friday, but refused to discuss his work or the reaction to it, saying only, "I'm sorry if this is putting pressure on Lori."


Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw eggs and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she did not think to connect it to the events at Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving nasty messages and threats on her business answering machine.


"I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before you get hurt," one caller said.


She removed the painting from the window, but the gallery's troubles received news coverage and the criticism continued. The answering machine recorded new calls from people accusing her of being a coward for moving the artwork.


Last weekend, Haigh said a man walked into the gallery, pretended to scrutinize the painting for a moment, then marched up to her desk and spat in her face.


On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched Haigh in the face when she stepped outside.


"This isn't art-politics central here at all," Haigh said. "I'm not here to make a stand. I never set out to be a crusader or a political activist."


In closing the gallery, Haigh was forced to cancel an upcoming show featuring counterculture artist Winston Smith.


For Haigh, who opened Capobianco a year and a half ago, having the chance to work with prominent artists fulfilled a lifelong dream.


"I kept thinking someday I'll have enough of a reputation where I could bring in my heroes of the art world, people like Guy Colwell especially," she said.


Haigh has received some expressions of support since closing the gallery. Her favorite: an e-mail whose writer said, "I'm sure that a few and dangerous minds don't understand that they have only mimicked the same perversity this painting had expressed." (me:  How true!)

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 5:34pm
I am very surprised that this happened in San Francisco. People are getting emotional over these incidentsm, indicating a wound in the American psychi, and I'm not sure why.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 7:34pm
You know, that's a tough one. On the one hand, I fully support this artist's right to express herself through her art. She has the right to declare her feelings on the matter.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure I'd want smaller children exposed to that sort of imagery, either. Out of respect for wee ones, I might try to make sure that the art is in an adults-only venue.

Tough call.

What I'd like to know is...

I realize that there is much more to art than economics. But does this woman want to sell the stuff? Who's buying? I'd like to see Trading Spaces do something with that!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 10:36am

Art is supposed to make an impact. Too bad the gallery's owner was put in danger by people's reaction to that art.


Hayashig makes a good point...>"indicating a wound in the American psychi"<. Is it not wanting to face the reality of what happened? That these monstrous acts

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 2:17pm

My first thought was that overused word...'denial'...violent denial at that.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 2:21pm

For some...guilt, horror, an inability to be faced with the truth (or an artistic representation of such).


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 2:28pm

I'm not sure I'm reading your post correctly...just in case, it was the gallery owner who was attacked and threatened...not the artist.


As for an 'adults only' venue...most private art galleries are.


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-16-2003
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 6:11pm
>>>Most times, art is created to express oneself - not to make a sale. Sounds like this particular artist sells enough water colors anyway, that he is able to do pieces that express his outrage, etc., as well.<<<

You could very well be right about this artist. Like many I make what is called "bread and butter" art so that I am able to create other work that a deep expression of how I feel about things.

>>>And you never know who will buy it...and perhaps the artist doesn't care if anyone ever buys it<<

absolutely, even though it may be more difficult to sell it is certainly worth it to an artist to be able to have it shown in good gallery. And you are right, you never know who will buy what in a gallery. There is nothing predictable about art and what appeals to the public.

>>What bothers me the most about this is the violence involved. It's like a 'bully mentality'. Bully the gallery owner, scare her, physically assault her, etc., in order to force her to censor what she displays in her gallery. THAT is what I find the most terrifying in this situation.<<

Yes this is despicable.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 10:09pm
Oh, geez, I've got to go back and read that thing again...I thought it was the artist, and I thought the art was displayed in a window on the street. Ooops!

And ya, like I said in my post, there is alot more to art than economics. Thank heaven, too!

I didn't even mention the violence, because I just don't see what's debatable there. Bullying just ain't right. No matter what the circumstances.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 05-31-2004 - 11:18pm
Thanks for posting this. I can't find it, but I'd originally read an article which showed pictures of the bruised art gallery owner, which certainly made this hit home a bit more. This is one of those articles which makes me question just what is going on in America. I have a reflex (thanks to a WWII generation English teacher when I was in high school) to check everything against the Nazis, and this is one of those stories that seem to be right out of pre-WWII Germany. Physcially punishing artists (or in this case, those who show art) is definatley a red flag for me.

When reading about this initially, my first thought was of Picasso's "Guernica" so I thougth I'd post a link to the painting and some of it's history.

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html

and here's an article about how the most powerful antiwar painting in the world was covered up for Powell's U.N. speech prior to the Iraq war:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/02/1570680.php


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 06-01-2004 - 12:10am
Huh...I didn't realize that they'd done that...pathetic.

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