First, a little background. Apparently there’d been a proposal to put up a statue by local artist Robert Graham–famous for female nudes–at Windward Circle in Venice. This occasioned some formal protests, some because of the objection to nudity, and some for other reasons. Surprisingly these objections were overruled, and it’s arguably more surprising that, in our bowdlerized and repressed society, the idea of having a nude statue anywhere outside the definite confines of a gallery or collection would even be floated. Naturally I wouldn’t have expected everyone to be delighted with this decision, but I mistakenly assumed that the opponents would confine their tactics to legal channels.
This really saddens me. When I first heard about the vandalism, and that “large” works had been damaged, I thought of several abstracts there that I like. Never did I think it would be a singleminded and focused attack on one of the few representational artists represented in that collection.
There’s nothing to suggest that it was because of nudity, nor that it was specifically related to the plans for the display in Venice. But there’s no denying that this one artist has been singled out.
Fortuitously, had already been planning to visit UCLA today so I’ll be interested to see what steps if any have been taken to protect his other works, of which there are several on view. Sadly, the article mentioned a number of his works that I didn’t even know were there, as I haven’t been there in years. And now they possibly won’t be available to see. My errand there will take me to the music library, so perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to check out the damage to the Ellington memorial, and then I’ll head up to the sculpture garden to check on the Dance Columns.