Milwaukee seems to have more than its fair share of ugly art controversies. Public outrage over art gets whipped up regularly by small-minded politicians and right-wing radio.
Most inflamed art debates in the past, however, were from people who are totally baffled by what for decades they’ve called modern art. You know, crazy stuff that really bothers people who don’t go to art galleries because they can’t make heads or tails of it.
One of the few public art installations in Milwaukee to receive widespread acceptance was The Bronze Fonz.
But if folks get deeply upset over art they don’t understand, we really shouldn’t be surprised some of them would go into total conniptions when they’re able to understand exactly what an artist is saying and it’s all about sex and religion and politics.
That’s the case with the Milwaukee Art Museum’s newly acquired portrait of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI created by artist Niki Johnson out of 17,000 brightly colored condoms, irreverently titled Eggs Benedict.
The Calling, that bright, orange, sunburst sculpture at the end of Wisconsin Avenue by world-renowned sculptor Mark di Suvero doesn’t seem nearly so radical now, does it?
Right-wing talk shows that bullied the Milwaukee County Board out of installing conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim’s large translucent Blue Shirt on a Mitchell Airport parking structure have to be apoplectic now that Milwaukee’s world-class art museum will be proudly exhibiting something they consider far worse.
What’s perhaps most surprising so far, however, is how relatively mild the reaction has been to an intentionally provocative artwork. In a humorous, original way, Johnson makes a strong political statement about the immorality of the Catholic Church’s opposition to safe sex in the age of AIDS.
Johnson’s protest was in response to Pope Benedict’s 2009 tour of sub-Saharan Africa, which continues to be ravaged by the world’s worst epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Those countries accounted in 2011 for an estimated 69% of all people living with HIV and 70% of all AIDS deaths worldwide.
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At a time when public health workers were desperately struggling to educate and encourage Africans to engage in safe sexual practices, Benedict used his papal authority among one of the world’s fastest growing Catholic populations to discourage the use of condoms, erroneously claiming it could increase the spread of AIDS.
Opposing contraception that could end a deadly epidemic ranks right up there with covering up child sexual abuse as the church’s own worst sins.
Johnson channeled her own and much of the public’s outrage into a slyly humorous piece drawing national and international attention primarily because of the materials used in her meticulous tapestry of Benedict—thousands of colorful, interwoven condoms.
But it’s Johnson’s imagination, technical skill and, yes, artistry that make Eggs Benedict a significant work of art.
Right-Wing Spreads Contempt
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tried to scare up some strong opposition for a story headlined in some editions “Milwaukee Art Museum’s Embrace of Condom Portrait of Pope Draws Disgust.” But the story failed to find all that much raging controversy.
Guess what? Conservative Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki didn’t really like the portrait. The art museum said it received about 200 complaints and about an equal number in support. The piece won’t go on display until the fall.
The museum also said a handful of patrons dropped museum memberships. A docent quit. The newspaper managed to find one donor who vowed never to contribute to the museum again. Overall contributions and memberships are up.
That’s good news. When conservative media succeed in creating ugly art controversies, it inevitably degenerates into a battle between elitism and ignorance.
Elitism didn’t used to be a dirty word. Elite athletes are the ones we admire. Our presidential candidates always used to have elite, Ivy League educations. Someone who didn’t even finish college need not apply.
Some on the right claim it’s elitist to raise the issue of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s lack of a college degree. But not having a degree isn’t Walker’s education problem. It’s his total lack of respect for education at every level and his historic devastation of education funding.
In recent years, the extreme right has tried to spread public contempt for well-educated, refined, elite people as—get this—latte-drinking liberals. Actual research has found more conservatives than liberals drink lattes.
And the heirs to family fortunes and wealthy industrialists who provide much of the support for the Milwaukee Art Museum and every other art museum in this country are not exactly the hippie-dippie class. It was a Pabst who donated Eggs Benedict to the Milwaukee museum.
There’s nothing wrong with ordinary people who don’t really understand or care very much about art. But education matters. And art can both enrich and inform our lives.
May all of us all continue to aspire to elitism. It sure beats ignorance.
