The Loveland Museum sits on a busy street in downtown Loveland, Colorado. It’s a modest, innocuous building which over the last few weeks has been the site of an unexpected controversy centered on the recent opening of the museum gallery’s latest exhibit. The exhibit features prints on paper by artists working with a master Colorado print maker.
Some time after the opening of its latest exhibit, a Loveland city councilman verbalized his objection to a particular image in the show. This led to regional and national publicity and the picketing of the museum by a group of people, presumably most of whom were Christians, claiming that the show included a depiction of Christ in a sexual act. It’s pornography, they protested, that should be banned from the museum.
I was passing through Loveland, when I decided to stop by the museum to see its latest exhibit. As I reached the parking lot, I saw a group of people holding up signs, some asking drivers to honk if they agreed the art inside was pornographic. When I walked from my car to the museum entrance, I heard a small group of people reciting the Lord’s Prayer. No one approached me regarding the controversy, so I entered the building and went into the gallery.
I knew where the focus of attention was immediately, as there was a tight group of people standing together in front of a long display case. Instead of going directly toward this group, I started my tour of the show at the entrance of the gallery.
I was amazed at the quality of the displayed art. There were vividly-colored prints wrought in interesting 3-dimensional forms, amazingly detailed two-dimensional prints demonstrating the great skill of the print maker, and the work of a well-known artist at the apex of her craft after 40 years of making art.
After I had seen most of the work, I approached the print being protested by the people outside. The artist has said that this particular work was his response to pedophilia scandals involving Catholic priests. The objectionable image was one of hundreds in his approximately 60 feet of printed work in the exhibit.
He explained in the press that when he created the image in question, he had not intended for it to be a picture of Jesus or Christ. He called it “a corrupted icon”. When I read this, I understood his intent. And…. when I viewed the image, I could see why people with strong Christian beliefs would find it objectionable. Clearly, the distinction he was drawing regarding the image had not created understanding or acceptance by the people who were protesting.
Reflecting on the controversy after I left, it occurred to me to wonder: if both the offenses of the priests and the offense of the artist were weighed on the scales Lady Justice holds in her hand, in courthouse images of her across the country, how would the scales balance out? How would Justice rule on the matter?
I was surprised to learn that the following day a woman, spurred by the national publicity, drove all the way from Montana, purchased a crow bar, entered the Loveland Museum gallery, smashed the Plexiglass case, and ripped up the offensive portion of the artist’s print. The museum staff called the police, who then arrived, handcuffed and took the woman away. She was charged and released on bond, with a trial pending. I read a report of her statement upon arrest. “God is real,” she had said.
Many people in this country share her perception of reality. I wonder what they, and those with diverging viewpoints, perceive are the important issues of justice regarding one person’s artistic freedom to express a controversial viewpoint and another person’s passionate protest, through an act of violence, intended to suppress that artistic expression? Which path will they each affirm…. at the crossroads of art and justice?