“Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment” featured 150 black and white photographs by the photographer, who had died the previous spring of AIDS, including images of nudity, gay eroticism and sadomasochism.
(“I’d really rather you take a picture of me, pulling a knotted flag out of my ass.”)
Now Orr-Cahall is back in the spotlight as the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at George Washington University revisits its past in:
“June 13, 1989: The Cancelling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition.”
Then Acting Director R. Brant Snyder predicted the Norton wouldn’t be harmed by the controversy. “It will be over in the long run and pretty soon in the short run,” he told the Post.
Orr-Cahall remained mum on the topic.
She went on to head the museum for 19 years, overseeing two expansions and the doubling of the permanent collection.
In 2009, she left to lead the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, now the Museum of Pop Culture. She retired in 2013.
The new exhibition examines what was going on behind the scenes when the Corcoran canceled the Mapplethorpe show. It draws on never-before-exhibited internal memos, correspondence, board meeting minutes and call logs culled from the Corcoran archives. It also covers the outcry the decision ignited in the art world.
Paradoxically, North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, one of the leaders of the outcry, was displeased because the museum’s capitulation deprived him of an opportunity to use it in his electioneering.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Orr-Cahall recalled a Helms aide telling her, “Your cancellation isn’t going to stop us.”
The Corcoran Gallery died in 2014, when George Washington University absorbed the financially strapped institution’s school, building and endowment. The National Gallery of Art acquired the cream of its collection and the remainder was distributed to other museums.
The Corcoran school revisited the Mapplethorpe controversy because it is committed to artistic freedom of expression, director Sanjit Sethi told Inside Higher Ed.
Among the issues cultural institutions must grapple with today is the country’s debate about “what it means to be an American,” he said.
Orr-Cahall told The Washington Post she’s happy about the show, despite materials critical of the part she played in the controversy.
But she’s surprised by the incident’s longevity. “I don’t think any of us thought this would continue on, or continue on 30 years later,” she said.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 6 at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design in Washington, D.C.
dave.
Bill Hicks (Truth Be Told)
Piss Christ
Rolling Stones
Steel Wheels
Joe Satriani Surfing With The Alien
Guns N Roses Appetite of Destruction
1988 — Living Colour
Vivid
Saturday Night Live (April 1, 1989)
International Rock (Best Newcomer)
1989 — GRAMMY AWARD
BEST HARD ROCK PERFORMANCE
1990 — GRAMMY AWARD
BEST HARD ROCK PERFORMANCE
“Cult of Personality”
1991 — THE GRAMMY INCIDENT
Best Hard Rock Album
Metallica vs. Jethro Tull
“There’s No Flute in Rock N Roll”
1992 — Time’s Up
Doug Wimbish joins the band
1993 — Stain
CoLors*…
This is a Voyage into Sound.
inst. of change [THE ELECTRIC GUITAR]
the players
[INSTRUMENTS] OF NOISE.
take it to the bridge
The Original Color of Sin [BLUE.]
1989