An intriguing conflict within the Fayetteville Underground art gallery prompted 22 artists to pull their work from the walls in protest the other day. But 26 others were quickly added to fill the empty spaces.
Suppose this might help explain the term temperamental artist?
The disagreement was over alleged censorship by the Fayetteville Art Alliance, which supervises the gallery, its chairman Sharon Killian, and a couple of explicitly sexual photographs by talented artist Alli Woods Frederick.
A news account by reporter Stacy Ryburn said Frederick's photographs of her praying in front of a male sex organ and another of Frederick hovering over a man's groin had initially been placed in the main gallery area near the typically active snack bar where musicians also play.
What occurred afterwards appears to be an exercise in miscommunication, the reporter wrote. Killian said she'd arrived at the gallery on the downtown's Oct. 6 First Thursday event and visited with a board member about the prominent placement of the photographs.
A cautionary sign was placed at the entrance saying some might find certain artwork offensive.
The following day, Frederick reportedly agreed to have her work removed from display during certain days and hours.
Yet on Oct. 8, Frederick said she was stunned to find her photographs taken down from their original location. Killian said the photographs had been relocated to a less conspicuous part of the gallery, as had been common practice in the past with other work depicting nudity.
"I had no idea," Frederick told Ryburn. "I was never notified."
Killian said Frederick had indeed agreed to moving her photographs to another location.
An exasperated Frederick then chose to remove her work and cancel her exhibit without announcement. Well, except word of her sudden departure spread quickly on Facebook.
Her decision to withdraw was enough to spark a total of 22 Underground artists during the next week to elect to follow Frederick out the door in sympathetic protest.
One photographer, Sabine Schmidt, was quoted saying the exodus didn't come as a group but with each artist weighing their own choice as a matter of principle over supposed censorship. That decision likely cost them income, since each artist kept 60 percent of a sale with 40 percent going to the nonprofit gallery.
The gallery's volunteer manager, Joelle Storet, had no problem replacing the defectors with 26 new artists. Underground didn't miss a beat in operations largely funded with tax dollars.
Formed during 2009 in a commercial basement on the city's square, Fayetteville Underground this year received $6,830 in sales tax revenue from the city's Advertising and Promotion Commission. In 2012 the commission gave the gallery $50,000 when it relocated to 101 West Mountain, still on the square.
I look at the basic facts of this squabble and can easily see both sides.
Who knows, except Killian and Frederick, whether the artist was notified in advance that her work was being relocated to a more suitable location? I can easily understand the larger concerns that displaying such controversial and possibly offensive subjects as praying over male genitalia and whatever else the hovering picture symbolizes would be misplaced in the gallery's busier gathering area.
It's prudent for any manager (and/or gallery board) to thoughtfully decide where each piece of artwork is best displayed in limited space. Sounds like this is a decision I'd likely also have made, given the authority.
Yet I also understand Frederick's view if, after being displayed in a certain area as part of her exhibit scheduled to run from Oct. 6 to 29, her work suddenly was relocated without a clear understanding with powers-that-be at Underground. Looking through that lens (sorry), I'd also find that kind of treatment a tad shocking.
As for the other artists who decided to join Frederick at the barricades by taking their creations home in protest of supposed censorship?
Well, I'm having a harder time with that. First, Frederick supposedly agreed to changing to selective display times and a more suitable location in the gallery. At least that's what the story said. Neither did Killian, the gallery manager, nor members of the board ask that Frederick remove her work or cancel her exhibit to my knowledge.
It appears Frederick became upset and decided to voluntarily withdraw her photographs after believing she'd been treated unfairly and perhaps without proper respect.
Moving any established artist's work from one part of a gallery to another in order to establish some sense of reasonable commonality in topics (especially controversial) is not censorship in my book.
It is, however, an indication of the reasoned preferences of those whose responsibility lies in taking all tastes and interests into consideration to hopefully strike an amenable balance.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 10/25/2016