# Dutch museum renaming art for cultural sensitivity **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 16, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620 "2015-12-16T18:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/21 "2015-12-17T01:25:34Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > These works have historical nomenclature that has defined them for decades (if not centuries). This is political correctness infiltrating history and art. As an artist, I don’t care for it one bit. I shouldn’t have to read the historical name of a piece of art from my iPhone, when it stands a few feet from me. I get the feeling that this is an art piece in itself. You don’t have the power to dictate how this museum presents its art. It will change its descriptors to reflect its sensibilities, not yours pal. Get used to looking up any of the older terms. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/22 "2015-12-17T01:30:11Z")
People just shouldn’t be so sensitive. It’s eye-rollingly tiresome. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/23 "2015-12-17T01:51:49Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > People just shouldn’t be so sensitive. It’s eye-rollingly tiresome. I don’t really see anybody being “so sensitive” here except the folks whining about “political correctness infiltrating history and art” and “censorship”, etc. (I’m assuming that **the\_diego** ’s remark about “killing the very best in white European culture” must have been a sarcastic exaggeration, since of course nobody’s doing anything at all to “kill” these products of white European culture which are still scrupulously preserved and triumphantly presented as artistic masterpieces in the Rijksmuseum’s collections.) **All the Museum staff are doing is updating their own _standard designations_ for the artworks that _they happen to own_ to better reflect modern usage for modern audiences.** Nobody’s saying that _you_ can’t still refer to the paintings by their historical titles if you prefer it. Untwist your knickers, folks, and calm down. Or if you can’t calm down about what you insist on viewing as some horrible “censorship” or “distortion” of history, at least stop pretending that _other_ people are the ones getting upset. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/24 "2015-12-17T02:04:27Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Rijksmuseum is too close a cognate of “Reichsmuseum” for my comfort. Change it please. > > In American English, “negro” is sort of like “Oriental.” Not automatically offensive (though it certainly can be intended as such), but I’d wonder if the speaker has been paying attention to social culture or even watched a TV in the last 40 years. > AFAIK he was never referred to as such in the book, so there is nothing to change as far as his name goes; the references are indirect. > [@Peremensoe](#): > > Jim’s name or nickname in the book is not “Nigger Jim,” it’s just Jim. He is certainly referred to as _a_ “nigger” many times. > > Certainly changing the word on grounds of racist offense would be an outrageous crime against literature and literary history–not to mention, a completely ignorant misunderstanding of the purpose of the word in the book. I didn’t say that was his name or nickname. It’s been many years, but I think it was something like …the nigger Jim… ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/25 "2015-12-17T02:04:36Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > I get the feeling that this is an art piece in itself. You don’t have the power to dictate how this museum presents its art. It will change its descriptors to reflect its sensibilities, not yours pal. Get used to looking up any of the older terms. I believe a work of art is intricately tied to the time and place it was created. The racism of the time period is an inherent part of the artistic work. It wasn’t crafted to satisfy the political sensibilities on 2015, just as something made today is not crafted to satisfy the political sensibilities of 2215. This is the imparting of one’s modern sensibilities onto a memento of history. It is of tremendous and devious ego to do such a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/26 "2015-12-17T02:11:59Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > All the Museum staff are doing is updating their own standard designations for the artworks that they happen to own to better reflect modern usage for modern audiences. Nobody’s saying that you can’t still refer to the paintings by their historical titles if you prefer it. > > Untwist your knickers, folks, and calm down. Or if you can’t calm down about what you insist on viewing as some horrible “censorship” or “distortion” of history, at least stop pretending that other people are the ones getting upset. I’m perfectly calm. I just laconically roll my eyes at this kind of nonsense. Occasionally, if I’m feeling particularly animated, I may indulge in a mild shake of the head, but other than that I pay it no mind. Frankly, you seem considerably more defensive than I do. The way I see it, whether we like it or not the offensiveness of a work’s title is a dimension of the art. It gives insight, no matter how oblique, into the society in which the work was created. It does, therefore, have _some_ value. And while I get that the museum will be archiving the original titles, I rather doubt they’ll go to too much trouble to advertise this archive. It probably won’t occur to most people to check if a piece has an alternative title. In a very small, but still meaningful way, they won’t be seeing the whole piece. Now, personally, I don’t really like portraiture so I don’t much care. But this silly little exercise seems symptomatic of a trend towards mollycoddling which does rather irk me. Frankly, if you’re gravely offended by the racially insensitive title of a painting created during a racially insensitive time; if, in other words, you can’t detachedly appreciate the work in its historical context, then you’re just feeble-minded and you need to toughen up. Why make all this effort just to pander to a bunch of milquetoasts? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/27 "2015-12-17T02:18:49Z")
We’re going to rename “Piss Christ” as “The Lord, Our Savior, Suspended in Liquid that Looks like Urine, but Actually Isn’t” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/28 "2015-12-17T02:29:50Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > I believe a work of art is intricately tied to the time and place it was created. The racism of the time period is an inherent part of the artistic work. Yeah, and? **Nobody’s changing the artistic works or denying their ties to the time and place they were created in any way.** You do realize that a bunch of these titles you’re so opposed to changing are **English** nicknames applied to works by **non-English-speaking** artists, right? For example, the title “Young Negro Girl” for the 1900 painting by the **Dutch** artist Simon Maris, which is slated for replacement by the alternate title “Girl with a Fan” or some such, is actually a fairly recent **modernization** of the **former** English title “The Little Negress”, a **translation** of the Rijksmuseum’s original **Dutch** title “Negerinnetje”, which isn’t even guaranteed to be the name by which Maris himself referred to the painting. If you’re so concerned about a painting’s title faithfully reflecting the time and place of its creation, why aren’t you bitching about the use of English translations of foreign-language titles in the first place? And where was your concern back when English speakers started calling this painting “Young Negro Girl” instead of “The Little Negress”? :dubious: [QUOTE=Stringbean] This is the imparting of one’s modern sensibilities onto a memento of history. [/quote] The popular names of artworks change to accommodate the perspectives of changing viewership all the time. Your complaints about this one particular type of change reflect either profound ignorance of the actual history of important artworks or flat-out hypocrisy (or possibly both). [QUOTE=Stringbean] It is of tremendous and devious ego to do such a thing. [/QUOTE] It is of intricate and fundamental illiteracy to write such a sentence. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/29 "2015-12-17T02:35:21Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > I believe a work of art is intricately tied to the time and place it was created. The racism of the time period is an inherent part of the artistic work. It wasn’t crafted to satisfy the political sensibilities on 2015, just as something made today is not crafted to satisfy the political sensibilities of 2215. > > This is the imparting of one’s modern sensibilities onto a memento of history. It is of tremendous and devious ego to do such a thing. Firstly, its not safe to assume that the museum’s presentations of the art **was** indicative to the time and place the art was created. Its possible, but not a fair assumption. The museum’s display could be much more recent in comparison to the art piece itself. Secondly, it is the Dutch curators themselves who are drawing a sharp contrast between **the art** , and **the museum itself** who are merely displaying the art. If you feel you need an older display method (used by the museum) to fully appreciate these art pieces, you’ll need to also accept that the curators disagree with you. So, you’ll need to get your fix somewhere else (probably two clicks on your iPhone). ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/30 "2015-12-17T02:38:34Z")
Again, the question is, what exactly is on display? ‘Only’ a work of art? Or, also/instead an artifact of history? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/31 "2015-12-17T02:40:08Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > **Nobody’s changing the artistic works or denying their ties to the time and place they were created in any way.** If that were true, what could be the point of a change? ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/32 "2015-12-17T02:40:55Z")
“Young Negro Girl” and “The Little Negress” are both apt translations of the Dutch term “Negerinnetje.” “Girl with a Fan” is a whitewash. And my grammar was both valid and poetic. Accusations of illiteracy are rather ironic when one is vouching for invalid translational equivalencies. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/33 "2015-12-17T02:46:47Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > “Young Negro Girl” and “The Little Negress” are both apt translations of the Dutch term “Negerinnetje.” > > “Girl with a Fan” is a whitewash. I have to agree. The fact that she’s black is obviously of greater relevance to any meaningful interpretion, as art at the time of its creation or as a lens on art history, than the fact that she has a fan! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/34 "2015-12-17T02:50:28Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > It probably won’t occur to most people to check if a piece has an alternative title. In a very small, but still meaningful way, they won’t be seeing the whole piece. In what “meaningful” way will viewers who look at a 1900 Dutch painting with a 21st-century English title instead of an earlier 20th-century English title, neither of which is entirely equivalent to the earliest known Dutch title which may or may not have been what the Dutch artist actually called the painting, not “be seeing the whole piece” simply due to the change in the accompanying **English** title? Now, if you were making a case that the display or cataloguing of an artwork should include the full history of its popular nomenclature beginning with whatever its creator called it, in order to provide historical context about the work’s creation and appreciation, I’d agree with you. But that’s not the type of complaint I’m seeing here. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/35 "2015-12-17T03:00:15Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > “Young Negro Girl” and “The Little Negress” are both apt translations of the Dutch term “Negerinnetje.” > > “Girl with a Fan” is a whitewash. In other words, you’re saying you’d be fine with the Rijksmuseum changing their standard English designation for the painting to “Young Black Girl”? And how come you’re okay with using “Young Negro Girl” as an alternative title to the earlier “The Little Negress”? What happened to your previous insistence on the importance of preserving the exact shade of historical racism represented by an original title? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/36 "2015-12-17T03:13:31Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > “Young Negro Girl” and “The Little Negress” are both apt translations of the Dutch term “Negerinnetje.” > > “Girl with a Fan” is a whitewash. > . Except neither was the artists title, which seems to have been “Portrait of Mrs Allwood / Mrs Alting.” _The museum_ renamed it “Little Negress”" [http://www.trevorpatemanblog.com/2015/12/the-rijksmuseum-amsterdam-political.html](http://www.trevorpatemanblog.com/2015/12/the-rijksmuseum-amsterdam-political.html) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/37 "2015-12-17T03:34:52Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > As an artist, I don’t care for it one bit. I shouldn’t have to read the historical name of a piece of art from my iPhone, when it stands a few feet from me. Oh my, you’re an artist you say? Well I do hope you’ll write your titles on the back of your paintings so those Philistines who pay for it don’t just call it whatever they want. Your fragile heart would be crushed, I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/38 "2015-12-17T03:47:24Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Actual titles actually bestowed by the artists should be retained in all circumstances; whether the artist is now living is not relevant. I disagree. While preserving art is often worthwhile, it’s not the only value. Past generations cannot bind future ones. So I think it’s useful to consider changes to art that the creators never intended. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/39 "2015-12-17T03:53:36Z")
“It’s just the museum people modifying their presentation, without any kind of external influence.” There’s something nice about living in a third world country. We view politics as having more money or guns than anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620/40 "2015-12-17T06:04:24Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > There’s something nice about living in a third world country. We view politics as having more money or guns than anyone else. What’s nice about that? Takes less brainpower to figure out? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dutch-museum-renaming-art-for-cultural-sensitivity/740620.md?page=3)