Mary Boone

Mapplethorpe

I'm originally from Cincinnati.

Over the years, I've shown there a lot.

Cincinnati is like a smaller fish bowl. I know most of the people in the business there, and they know me. For most of my shows in Cincinnati, I would do a lot of mailings prior to the show. Like, for instance, I once did a show entitled "Inside& Outside (Ideal & Reality)" which was all about my spiritual quest in life. I wrote the entire thing out in something like fifteen chapters and mailed it to 120 people, a chapter at a time, starting 6 months before the show. The show itself was a visual history of the same in that I repainted important earlier paintings, which, I felt, reflected what I was spiritually going through at the time.

Another show was entitled "Thinking About Cincinnati." It took place shortly after the local Mapplethorpe controversy, which garnered national attention.

My feeling is that the Cincinnati art world (and probably that of all smaller cities) quite naturally has an inferiority complex when it comes to all things New York.

Taking their cue from New York, the art community went out of its way to express their indignation that anyone would dare to try and shut down Mapplethorpe's show. "It will have a chilling affect on the arts" said Owen, the leading art critic of the biggest newspaper in town.

At the time, there were two major galleries in Cincinnati. One was Solway, which mostly showed established New York artists; the other was Toni Birckhead, which was the premier exhibition space for regional artists.

Owen reviewed every single show at Solway.

Owen never set foot inside Birckhead.

My publicly asked question (which did not endear me to Owen) was: Which has a more chilling effect on the arts in Cincinnati?  The fact that the show of a homoerotic photographer is shut down, (as if any gallery in Cincinnati would do a similar show by a local artist in any case); or the fact that the leading art critic of the largest paper in town will not review the work of any local artists?

All those local art people who were falling all over each other to express their indignation at the sheriff, never said a peep in public about the censorship exercised by the art critic.

It would be a funny story, were it not so typical.

I mean, in NYC, you can do or say anything as an artist and still be accepted and respected by the art community.

Well, maybe anything except straightforward representational painting.

Tim Folzenlogen
MB Modern, March 2001