European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 10, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes columns William f. Buckley  know Art but often can to grasp reality i was in Cincinnati the other Day with a couple of hours to spare so i went to the contemporary arts Center to see the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition about which so much has been written. It was these photographs alongside a work by Andres Serrano Quot piss Chris that first stirred up sen. Jesse Helms r-n.c., who introduced a Bill to bar the National endowment for the arts from giving Money to exhibits that they found to include blasphemous or obscene Art. The photographs also prompted the sheriff of Hamilton county in which Cincinnati sits to indict the director of the gallery that is showing the Mapplethorpe exhibit. The curator of the Center spotted me and offered to give me and my companion a professional tour of the exhibit. John Sawyer we soon discovered knows More about Mapplethorpe than Boswell knew about Johnson. And he does not disguise his enthusiasm for the photographer s w Ork. He described in the photographs details that we might otherwise have missed speaking about them w Ith the voice of a Coroner dictating his findings to a stenographer whether he was talking about the irradiation of Subtle Light or about the Foreskin of the subject s Penis. I think it is fair to say about Sawyer that he is no More Quot shocked Quot by what Mapplethorpe photographed than i Laboratory technician would be shocked by a microbe he spotted. As far As he is concerned it is work that is done by an artist and that is All that matters. Iii flier you gel with your ticket might very Well have been written by the curator. Under the heading of Quot still lifes a one comes across the line Quot the convergence of both sexes in the Flower is emphasized by Mapplethorpe a careful positioning of Lens and Light to reveal the powdery stamens and the translucent Oriece created by the  fuss around with that just a Little bit and you could be Reading Henry Miller. The gallery proudly Points out that 50,000 people have come to Sec the exhibit in the first month. One restrains himself from observing out loud that 50,000 people went to see Quot deep Throat a every Day. Unfair perhaps. But the most wayward photographs of Mapplethorpe were in fact bunched together at one end of the room and that was the Only Corner of the exhibit w Hyrc a line formed. To see anal sex you have to stand in line. The utter sincerity of John Sawyer is not ineffective. You could liken exposure to him to talks against total disarmament. He Speaks again like a pathologist re Samv to to it a it Roe my Ctm Ltd foe pcs exceeded the Supply ,. Porting on body tissue about Mapplethorpe a models Quot. Mostly he liked the Black male. There had been practically no photographic studies of the Black male until Mapplethorpe. About one half of his models shown Here died of aids. That Model Over there did no to permit his face to be shown and later he thought the picture showed his member distracting by Large the Little boy filmed nude at age 6 was embarrassed by the photograph when he reached his teens. But now he is in College and likes it. His Mother always liked it. Some people find that picture of the Flower the sexiest in the exhibition Quot the mind keeps returning to the world of science which is like the world of Art in that the professional rescinds from the surrounding world the object he is assessing even As the scientist would do. The curator looks at a picture and sees in it Only the skill of the artist the effect of the picture on ambient values conventions feelings is simply extrinsic to his concern rather like asking the doctor doing a Biopsy whether the patient has provided adequately for his forthcoming widow. The John Sawyers of this world gazing at some of the pictures of Robert Mapplethorpe see colors and form and conformation and Are truly astonished that other people Are seeing Kink. It is very difficult for the two worlds to understand each other. There Are 150 pictures in the Mapplethorpe exhibit and by retiring 25 of them the Public would be left to see the extraordinary work of an extraordinary artist without being asked to suspend the operation of conventional sensibilities. But to withhold these in the eyes of the Sawyers of this world would be to perform an act of Bowdler nation. They should realize that just As no artists do and say things that do not Merit publication so artists perform work Best left for study and worship in artists laboratories. Universal press Syndicate Ellen Goodman the japanese ought to work less Boston a occasionally when he saw a Man from the neighbourhood who had moved so far above his roots that he would barely acknowledge them my father would shake his head and say with a humorous Edge a from Poland to Polo in three  it was his Stock commentary on assimilation on making it in America on the immigrant experience. But it was also a commentary on the nature of Success in a country whose economic ladder extended from the working class to the Leisure class. In theory at least we americans worked our Way up and out. Of work. In reality of course we have always been ambivalent about Leisure. On the one hand its the pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow. On the other hand its Lazy immoral. Our Horatio Alger stories Stop at precisely the moment the National hero became Rich. They done to Tell us what he did with the wealth or what happened to Horatio or. Was Alger the elder one of the parents who struggled to give his children everything he never had. And then ended up wondering Why the son Wasny to motivated to work hard i ask these questions because we re in a time when Many Are worrying about the american work ethic. Has it disappeared from our continent and reappeared As the asian work ethic or most especially the japanese work ethic consider the strange Story of International Trade. When the government announces our Trade enemies this week one county will be conspicuously absent from the list Japan. To avoid a Trade War we made a kind of preemptive peace treaty. Among the items in the treaty the japanese agreed a As a Concession to us a that they would shorten their work week. They would reduce the hours for government employees and encourage the private sector to do the same. What this suggests is that working hard is somehow an unfair labor practice. According to a University of Michigan study japanese men work about eight hours More a week than americans. We done to have to catch up they have to slow Down. This is the sort of reasoning that says americans done to really have to Start saving Money the japanese have to Start spending it. Next year we May demand that their children study less. I have my doubts about putting cultural values on the International Trade table. If we re going to Start rearranging other cultures to match economies Why not mandate that japanese salary men As they Are called do their share of housework at the moment they do about three hours a week or 10 hours less around the House than their american counterparts. The notion that the japanese need pressure to make them work fewer hours to Force them into Leisure fits neatly into our stereotype of their society hard working and Workaholic unified and closed disciplined and rigid. But it discounts the reality that countries like families May go through generational changes. One generation picks itself up by its Bootstraps the next generation makes it the next wonders what Quot it Quot is All about. It is a familiar progression for one family to go from the shopkeeper to professional to artist. People go through these stages in one life As Well from the search for safety and Security to what psychiatrists Call  having wondered about their next meal then their next year they eventually save less pause to wonder about the meaning of their life. Its what the midlife crisis is All about. Its behind the cliche of executive life Quot nobody Ever died wishing they d spent More time at the  Japan May also be at the Cusp of this change. Many japanese Are asking what rewards they should have from their International Success Story. They also Are worrying about their own a younger generation a not sure they need to work so hard and afraid that they might not. It May be that certain questions air Universal. In every culture human beings ask a is this All Quot there May be something in our nature that a Given a Chance a chums seeks new ground struggles to make a life. If so that something goes All the Way from Poland to Polo and from Samurai to salary Man. The Boston Globe newspaper co. The opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government