A Shock Grows In Brooklyn

The evening after the mayor came out swinging, Lehman was in Manhattan at the opening of a new exhibit at the Whitney Museum. (Ironically, that show included Serrano's "Piss Christ.") He was mobbed by well-wishers, and Whitney director Maxwell Anderson offered some encouraging comments. But other than two formal letters signed by groups of museum directors, the New York museums have been silent on Giuliani's attempt to dictate the content of an art exhibition. "I understand that there was a lot of pressure from board members not to alienate the mayor," said Brenda Richardson, a curator who worked with Lehman in Baltimore. "They're watching their funding."

Privately, some members of the art world also admitted to being uncomfortable with aspects of the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition, especially, as the mayor's office picked up on, the role of Saatchi. Unlike most museum exhibits, the show is drawn entirely from one private collection and Saatchi himself was heavily involved in mounting it. A passionate collector, he's spent the past decade discovering young artists in Britain and buying up their work. Complicating the issue is the fact that Christie's is one of the show's sponsors--the same auction house that sold 130 artworks for Saatchi in London last December, some by the same artists whose works are being shown in Brooklyn. (Those proceeds went to charity.) But the charge that Saatchi will cash in by quickly selling the work in "Sensation" is off base since the show is traveling to Australia and Japan after its run in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, all the noise surrounding the exhibition has distracted from the art itself. "The thing that's so appalling," says Lisa Phillips, the director of the New Museum in SoHo, "is that no one is looking at the work." "The Holy Virgin Mary" has been referred to in the press and by city officials as "smeared" with dung when, in fact, one small mound of dung is deliberately placed on the painting. (Such small dung heaps are a hallmark in all his work, a connection to his African roots.)

While the dispute headed to the courts, most legal experts put their money on the Brooklyn Museum. "Once the city commences financing this kind of programming," says lawyer Adam Cohen of Kane Kessler, "you can't revoke the financing for unconstitutional grounds." But the battle was clearly about more than the First Amendment. When asked about the criticism that he's simply trying to get votes, the mayor shrugged. "What's new? This is Giuliani. I speak my mind."