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The fight over the Stalin banner that was hung and then subsequently removed from a Cooper Union building overlooking the East Village is continuing on and sure seems convoluted. A week after the banner was taken down, a tug-of-war over why it happened is going on between the university, the Buildings Department and the NY Civil Liberties Union with input coming from the nearby Ukrainian community as well as the artist whose installation it was a part of.
After receiving complaints about it, the Buildings Department contacted Cooper Union and told them the banner was violating city regulations. A spokesman for the Dept. told the Times, "We determined that the sign was too high, too large, lacked a permit, and blocked the building’s windows. The department does not regulate sign content."
That was not enough of an explanation for the Civil Liberties Union, who believe that the banner was being censored because of the community reaction to the massive image of the dictator who killed thousands of Ukrainians as leader of the USSR. "If building code inspectors were sent to Cooper Union to enforce regulations because of complaints about the banner’s content, then that would run afoul of the First Amendment,” said Donna Lieberman, head of the NYCLU.
As for the Cooper Union, the university said that it was willing to reapply for a permit to rehang the banner. But they planned to hold off on doing that until after this weekend's commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine. A spokeswoman for the school though also sais that city officials made it clear that such a permit would not be granted.
And of course, Lene Berg, the artist behind the installation “Stalin by Picasso, or Portrait of Woman with Mustache,” has thrown in her two cents on the matter once again. Berg told City Room, "It’s deeply troubling that freedom of expression was so quickly abandoned, but my hope is that this controversy will force people to continue the discussion about the power of politics and representation. No government should be able to selectively silence speech.”
Photo Courtesy AP/Bryan ZImmerman
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One thing is for sure- the artist hoped for controversy. This is art at its lamest. Can we talk about something interesting?
My own piece, a banner entitled "handsome Argentine with scruffy beard and beret looking piercingly off into the distance, pondering the revolution" will be hung in Little Havana next week.
Let's hope for some attention!!!! (crosses fingers)
NYCLU is barking up the wrong tree. It is an oversized banner! Period. The content is irrelevant.
It would be a violation if it had Kate Moss' ass on it, as much as Papa Joe's mug.
Were the two smaller banners in the picture taken down? If not, then the NYCLU has no case. Stalin would still be up, just not in an illegally large format. Besides, isn't she violating copyright by basing her work on Picasso's sketch without permission? I don't think he assigned a Creative Commons license to it.
If the nyclu had any idea how many jews stalin murdered they'd probably back down from this...nevermind the 20 million he also murdered.
If it was a portrait of hitler made by picasso i kind of doubt they'd be demanding that this thing stay up.
I wonder if clueless NYCLU would defend an image of Hitler anywhere in NYC? Let's give it a try on certain parts of Brooklyn.
Superficial art in any event.
Let's try for a real hero next time.
Maybe Paul Robeson.
this is BS, there's banners like this at the Metropolitan museum, the NYPL at Bryant Park, any luxury condo, and commercial advertising.
A statement from the artist, a more detailed description of the work, as well as excerpts from the eponymous video piece were posted on the Web site of the online magazine Triple Canopy on Thursday, if you’re looking to understand the context rather than make judgments based on a superficial description and a single image of the banner.
http://www.canopycanopycanopy.com
Aprovan, you're missing the entire point. Some things are in bad taste. Unfortunately we can't put an artist's statement on the side of the building for all to read while looking at it...instead we have a 25 foot portrait of Stalin looking at a Ukranian neighborhood. While I question how far the state should be allowed to regulate free speech...the city has gone about this in the right way. Now that Cooper Union knows how the majority of people feel about this they will probably oblige the side of common decency and there won't even be a need for some court battle.
The difference between this and the Met banner..anyone want to explain the difference? I thought it was obvious...
Maybe that knight on the side of the Met offends some Norman peasants somewhere though...
I hope none of you will ever have to deal with the NYC dept. of buildings. I heard the funniest thing last week, a person was asking where "customer service" was.
Once again, great art is ruined by a bunch of pesky Ukrainians. Obviously they didn't learn from the last "historical lesson" so I've no doubt that this artiste will happily unfurl the next one.
It seems to me freedom of expression includes the freedom to get away from expression. Stalin and Picasso were both major yet highly overrated assh*les and shoving a picture of the former in the face of a people who suffered millions of deaths under and because of his regime is in extremely bad taste. For once, an analogy with Hitler is apt.
You can bet that the artist and Cooper Union knew that this would be controversial and that's the reason for it's display. It certainly wasn't the quality of the art work.
Yeah, controversy aside this was one of the least interesting things I've seen in a while.
I hope the recession hits bad artist really hard. I hate to see major artworks depreciate in value, but it might be worth it if this sort of thing disappears altogether.
Is this where Obama was staying?
"If the nyclu had any idea how many jews stalin murdered they'd probably back down from this...nevermind the 20 million he also murdered."
Hate to burst your bubble, but...
"... More than a quarter-century after his death, the “legacy” of American Civil Liberties Union founder Roger Baldwin – a self-professed fan of Soviet communism and of Joseph Stalin – is still going strong.... "