European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes thursday october 11,1990 columns Ellen goo Manart Community loses As Soho meets Cincy there were times when the Mapplethorpe trial in Cincinnati produced testimony that seemed worthy of the title attached to the museum exhibit a the perfect perfect moment no. 1 prosecutor Frank Prouty holds up two photographs one of a Man with a Bullwhip in his rectum. He asks the Art director who chose these images for the show a would you Call these sexual acts a she answers a i would Call them figure perfect moment no. 2 Prouty questions museum director Dennis Barrie a this photograph of a Man with his Finger inserted in his Penis what is the artistic Content of that a he responds a a it a a striking photograph in terms of Light and perfect moment no. 3? this one occurs when even a devoted defender of free expression lifts her eyes from the Page to offer her own Art criticism to the great curator in the sky a Kaaa Arigh a there was never any doubt in my mind that the trial Over the display of Robert Mapplethorpe a photographs would bring a a cultural clash into the courtroom. Soho meets Cincinnati. The testimony turned into a linguistic Battle a tale of two tongues one Side speaking Art one Side speaking English. It began to sound less like a Case about obscenity than about class elitism artistic sensibilities and common sense. Americans often Divide like this when dealing with Art. One group thinks that Andy Warhol so brillo Box a is Brilliant the other thinks its a scam. Each believes the other a pack of fools though one May be called snobs and the other rubes. Guess which one is larger the Divide is bad enough when the argument is about brillo. But when its about bodies watch out. The seven photographs at Issue in this trial contain some grotesque subjects. In one of them a Man urinates into another Many a Mouth. Show me somebody who can look at that photograph and think David Broder Pirtz Cincinnati Post carps about the composition the symmetry and the classical arc of the liquid and ill show you someone with an advanced degree in Fine arts. That was is the sort of thing being said in Cincinnati. It seemed for a while that the verdict would hinge on Legal Maneu vers. The contemporary arts Center seemed to have lost when the judge denied its plea to show All the photographs not just the seven. Some thought the outcome May have been determined in the jury selection for there were no museum goers no artists no students of a what is Art a in this group. But the trial in Cincinnati like the troubles at the National endowment for the arts is partly the result of the Art worlds own Chic insularity. This happened because the Art Community Speaks its private language to a Circle so Small so cozy and so closed As to be dangerously isolated. Perfect moment no. 4 the prosecution asked How Art was determined. Was it he wondered aloud merely at the whim of the museum the witness a museum director said no it is determined by the culture at Large. And this is How he defined the culture at Large a museums critics curators historians i agree with those who defend the museums right to show these photographs. To leave the dark Side out of a Mapplethorpe show would be like leaving the tortured Black paintings out of a retrospective of Goya a work. It be legitimate to pick and choose the sunny Side of the work a the Calla lilies and celebrities a and show it As the whole. Indeed As the director also said Mapplethorpe set out to capture the line Between the disgusting and the Beautiful. There is room in life for the deliberately disturbing. The museums room a a Glass Case in a separate gallery a was tame enough. Nevertheless this trial a like the funding woes of Nea a is not just the fault of Jesse Helms on the rampage. They Are the fault As Well of an Art Community that lives in a rarefied climate talking to each other subject Only to a peer review and scornful of those who translate the word a a arts into now there is the Knock of the policeman at the door. Having failed to make their Case in Public they had to make it in court. In the history of Art this was not a perfect moment. C Boston Globe divided government rooted in Ike s tenure nobody would have been angrier than Dwight d. Eisenhower at the sorry spectacle in Washington these last few Days. The Soldier statesman who was born 100 years ago this sunday despised disorder and condemned partisan excesses. But without demeaning the Man who led the Allied armies to Victory in Africa and Europe in world War ii and guided the nation through eight years of peace and Prosperity As president in the 1950s, it must be said that the chaos of divided government is part of his legacy too. This a great and Good Man a As Stephen e. Ambrose Calls him in his newly published one volume biography is eagerly memorialized in the capital. A Small bust perches awkwardly above the Entrance to the Eisenhower theater inside the imposing John f. Kennedy Center for the performing arts totally overshadowed by the heroic Kennedy head that dominates the promenade. But Eisenhower a monuments Are elsewhere even if they do not Bear his name. The St. Lawrence Seaway which opened a fourth coast and brought the worlds Trade to the Middle West is part of his legacy. So is the interstate Highway system the greatest Public works investment in the last 50 years. Along with the i Bill which educated and housed Eisenhower a fellow veterans the interstate system has proved to be by far the most important economic development strategy of the Federal government. Beyond these Domestic landmarks Eisenhower ended the War in Korea rejected american involvement m Vietnam and strengthened the nato the cold War struggle with the soviet Union. At the same time he kept the lid on Pentagon spending pitting his personal prestige and hard earned experience against the influence of what he called a the military Industrial All this makes it easy to understand Why Eisenhower was the most popular american of his Era and Why his contributions Are increasingly praised by historians of the 20th Century. But it also is True that Eisenhower contributed albeit unwittingly to the political problem that has eroded the credibility and capacity of american government in the three decades since he left the White House the pattern of divided government. The figures Are striking. In the 40 years before Eisenhower s first election in 1952, the voters gave the president supportive majorities of his own party in both the House and Senate for All but six years. Since then the scorecard reads 24 years of divided government and Only 14 years of one party control. Many factors have contributed to that remarkable and devastating reversal of form. The decline of party organizations the Rise of television the growing ride non Honna ref a it am 1f i _ _ a us Pendency of voters All have played a part. But if was Eisenhower who gave a moral Sanction to this rampant ticket splitting who planted and nurtured the notion that the president was somehow separate from the rest of the political governmental system. He came into politics on a different plane As the Liberator of Europe the Man who had Defeated hitlers armies. His prestige was so High a and his partisanship so Well cloaked a that democrats hoped to recruit him As their presidential nominee. He was a National figure not a party Leader. B a in 1952, his popularity Public opposition to the korean War and weariness with 20 years of democratic Rule gave republicans control of the White House and Congress. But two years later the democrats regained their majorities m the House and Senate a and the fateful Era of divided government began. At first it did not seem very damaging. Eisenhower had easy rapport with the texans who led the democrats in Congre Shouse speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. He had started his military service in Texas and was stationed there on Pearl Harbor Day. Johnson and Rayburn supported him fully on foreign policy and had few fundamental differences with his Domestic priorities. Eisenhower had a modest Domestic Agenda and As Harvard a Mark a. Peterson Points out in his newly published Book a legislating together a he operated largely by forging agreements with the congressional leaders and then mobilizing Public opinion behind his plans. A when president Eisenhower took to television or radio in support of his limited number of initiatives his Success was overwhelming a Peterson writes. No such Success has been achieved by the More partisan presidents a Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Ronald Reagan and now George Bush a who have attempted to function in a divided government since Eisenhower one. Bush shares More values with Eisenhower than with any of his other predecessors but the ravages of 40 years of mostly divided government make it impossible Tor him to operate the Way Eisenhower did. In any other democracy the repudiation of legislative and executive leadership we saw in the budget fiasco would have forced a new election where the people would have been asked to decide which party should we muddle along As Best we can i n the divided government that is the worst part of Eisenhower a great legacy. O Washington Post writers group
