Guggenheim, Bowing to Animal-Rights Activists, Pulls Works From Show
- 7 years ago
Guggenheim, Bowing to Animal-Rights Activists, Pulls Works From Show
Freedom of expression has always been and will remain a paramount value of the Guggenheim.”
Criticism of the show grew quickly online, on social media and on animal-rights websites, with the initial focus on “Dogs
That Cannot Touch Each Other.” The museum tried to quell the backlash last Thursday, releasing a statement acknowledging that the work was difficult to view but encouraging patrons to consider what the piece “may be saying about the social conditions of globalization and the complex nature of the world we share.”
A spokeswoman for the museum said Thursday that “it was not a question that it would stay in the exhibition.”
But the criticism only grew over the weekend.
[Guggenheim Is Blasted by Artists for Pulling Works Involving Animals]
The museum planned to show a video of “Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other,” in which four pairs of dogs try to fight one another
but struggle to touch because they are on nonmotorized treadmills, and a video of “A Case Study of Transference,” which shows two pigs having sex before an audience.
The three works, which all involve animals, are “Dogs
That Cannot Touch Each Other,” “Theater of the World” and “A Case Study of Transference.” The pieces were among about 150 works selected for the show, mostly experimental art and many of them shocking, intended to challenge authority and use animals, in video, to call attention to the violence of humankind.
The museum, in Manhattan, made the decision after it had come under unrelenting pressure from animal-rights supporters
and critics over works in the exhibition, “Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World.” Protesters marched outside the museum over the weekend, and an online petition demanding “cruelty-free exhibits” at the Guggenheim had been signed by more than half a million people as of Monday night.
Freedom of expression has always been and will remain a paramount value of the Guggenheim.”
Criticism of the show grew quickly online, on social media and on animal-rights websites, with the initial focus on “Dogs
That Cannot Touch Each Other.” The museum tried to quell the backlash last Thursday, releasing a statement acknowledging that the work was difficult to view but encouraging patrons to consider what the piece “may be saying about the social conditions of globalization and the complex nature of the world we share.”
A spokeswoman for the museum said Thursday that “it was not a question that it would stay in the exhibition.”
But the criticism only grew over the weekend.
[Guggenheim Is Blasted by Artists for Pulling Works Involving Animals]
The museum planned to show a video of “Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other,” in which four pairs of dogs try to fight one another
but struggle to touch because they are on nonmotorized treadmills, and a video of “A Case Study of Transference,” which shows two pigs having sex before an audience.
The three works, which all involve animals, are “Dogs
That Cannot Touch Each Other,” “Theater of the World” and “A Case Study of Transference.” The pieces were among about 150 works selected for the show, mostly experimental art and many of them shocking, intended to challenge authority and use animals, in video, to call attention to the violence of humankind.
The museum, in Manhattan, made the decision after it had come under unrelenting pressure from animal-rights supporters
and critics over works in the exhibition, “Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World.” Protesters marched outside the museum over the weekend, and an online petition demanding “cruelty-free exhibits” at the Guggenheim had been signed by more than half a million people as of Monday night.