“I can’t agree with a safely conscience with a culture of censorship, especially if it focuses on vulnerable communities,” said the American artist Amy Sherald when she learned that at a retrospective exhibition American Sublime A problem had arisen in one of her works in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington.
Sherald is best known for her portrait art (she became world famous in 2018 with her portrait of Michelle Obama) but she does not shy away from political current events. Her work ‘Trans Forming Liberty’ is now the Stone of Astoods. In the painting, a transwoman is depicted as the Statue of Liberty. In order not to provoke Donald Trump, NPG is not considering showing the work, says Sherald in The New York Times: “Institutional fear, formed by a broader climate of political hostility towards translevens, played a role in the internal discussions about the exhibition.”
Instead of the work, a video would be shown showing that the public is looking at the work – American Sublimecan be seen last year in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and currently in the Whitney Museum of American Art In New York – where it concerns the reactions. Whether this video would be shown next to work or instead of the work was not yet clear. But that the video would offer space for transfobe reactions, and that was reason for Sherald not to agree anyway.
Cleansing
It is not the first time since Trump’s appointment that exhibitions are not going on. In this case it is an artist who decides to stop herself because she does not want her work to be used within the new ideology that the US is. The Art Museum of the Americas in Washington met the taste of Trump even further when it decided this spring to cancel two exhibitions by Andil Gosine commissioned by the White House because photos about homosexuality could be seen.
The fact that museums hang on Trumps anti-dei policy, where diversity, equality and inclusion are prohibited is a matter of money. Since he took office for a second term, Trump has been much more concerned with cultural expressions and education. For example, he issued a decree on the purification of culture where there was room for ‘on-American values’, where in short, only the classic white tradition may remain. Those who do not come along in Trump’s vision will no longer receive a subsidy or are in danger of losing their job. Websites of museums or institutions about African-American history or gender were therefore already ‘purified’.
The NPG is part of the Smithsonian, a federal institute that manages nearly twenty – free -accessible – museums in Washington. It is largely dependent on government subsidy. Trump wrote about the Smithsonian himself decree That it must show the “American greatness” by stimulating the “imagination of young spirits, honoring the richness of American history and innovation and proudly arousing in the hearts of all Americans.” Vice president JD Vance is now on the Supervisory Board of the Smithsonian. Trump tried to dismiss NPG director Kim Sajet because of her “inappropriate” view of American culture. That was not possible, but she did resign herself not to jeopardize the financial security of the Smithsonian.
Melania Trump Center
Even outside museums, measures are being taken to not bother Trump too much: Last week, the New York University of Colombia, a settlement with Trump of 200 million dollars to continue to count on government support, and the promised anti -Semitism promised. Also last week it was announced that the Late Night Show Van Stephen Colbert stops on CBS. Although the official reason would be that the show is too expensive while the viewing figures are falling, it is assumed that this has to do with the merger that Paramount (owner of CBS) wants to enter into a film studio, where the government’s permission needs. That permission came immediately after it was announced that the show with Colbert, who often and fiercely take on Trump, stops. Previously, CBS already arranged with Trump on it 60 minutes Interview with former vice-president Kamala Harris. Although Trump’s requirement was not well -founded, it was suitable for preventing greater financial damage.
Another factor is that Trump himself wants to be a more definitive person than in his first term. For example, he appointed himself chairman of the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts. Last month he visited the musical with his wife Melania Trump Les Misérables. The irony of the visit of precisely this president to a musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel about compassion and humanity was widely picked up, but he did not discourage himself. To reinforce his influence, he has proposed that the opera room that is part of the cultural complex is renamed the Melania Trump Center. The Republicans already find that in the House of Representatives A good idea.
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Also read: With decree on Smithsonian, Trump wants to rewrite African-American history. ‘He wants to erase everything that has to do with diversity’
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Also read: Trump tries to transform American culture by decree
