In and Out of View: Art and the Dynamics of Circulation, Suppression, and Censorship

In and Out of View models an expansion in how censorship is discursively framed. Contributors from diverse backgrounds, including artists, art historians, museum specialists, and students, address controversial instances of art production and reception from the mid-20th century to the present in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Their essays, interviews, and statements invite consideration of the shifting contexts, values, and needs through which artwork moves in and out of view.

At issue are governmental restrictions and discursive effects, including erasure and distortion resulting from institutional policies, canonical processes, and interpretive methods. Crucial considerations concerning death/violence, authoritarianism, (neo)colonialism, global capitalism, labor, immigration, race, religion, sexuality, activism/social justice, disability, campus speech, and cultural destruction are highlighted. The anthology—a thought-provoking resource for students and scholars in art history, museum and cultural studies, and creative practices—represents a timely and significant contribution to the literature on censorship.

List of Plates
List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction, Catha Paquette (California State University Long Beach, USA), Karen Kleinfelder (California State University Long Beach, USA), and Christopher Miles (Independent Scholar, USA)

PART I. DEADLY SERIOUS
1. Subjugated Knowledges, Revisionist Histories, and the Problem of Visibility: Carrie Mae Weems and Ken Gonzales-Day, Nizan Shaked (California State University Long Beach, USA)
2. Damage Control: Teresa Margolles, the Mexican Government, and the 2009 Venice Biennale Mexican Pavilion, Ana Garduño (National Institute for Fine Arts, Mexico)
3. Death Matters, Kerstin Mey (University of Limerick, Ireland)

PART II. THE SEXUAL (IN)SIGHT
4. Art/Obscenity in West German Experimental Film, 1968-1972: Circulating through the Debates, Megan Hoetger (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
5. Impossible to Image: Art & Sexual Violence, 1975–1979, Angelique Szymanek (Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA)
6. De-Shaming Shame, John Fleck (Actor and Performance Artist, USA) in Conversation with Kevin Duffy (Film Director, USA)
7. Only the Stupid Are Overt: Covert Censorship in the American Museum, Jonathan D. Katz (University of Pennyslvania, USA)

PART III. UNDER DELIBERATION: ARTFUL ACTIVISM
8. Tucumán Arde and the Changing Face of Censorship, Fabián Cereijido (Independent Scholar, USA)
9. The Discursive Roots of Censorship: Neoliberalism’s Rendering of Chican@ Art, Karen Mary Davalos (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA)
10. Tools and Obstacles, Daniel Joseph Martínez (University of California, Irvine, USA) and Carol A. Wells (Independent Scholar, USA) in Conversation with Nizan Shaked (California State University Long Beach, USA)
11. Remaining in Sight: Andrea Bowers’ Art Lessons from Activists, Peter R. Kalb (Brandeis University, USA)

PART IV. FRAMED: INSTITUTIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CONSTRAINTS
12. In and Out of Sites: Disability and Access in the Work of Park McArthur and Carmen Papalia, Elizabeth Guffey (Purchase College, USA)
13. Culture, State, and Revolution: Arts Wars between Religious and Secular Autocracies in Post-Revolution Egypt, Sonali Pahwa (University of Minnesota, USA) and Jessica Winegar (Northwestern University, USA)
14. Knowing/Caring, Ai Weiwei (Artist and Activist) and Alexandra Munroe in Conversation (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA)

PART V. CONTESTED OBJECTS: (RE)PRESENTING CULTURAL HERITAGE
15. Re-Indigenizing Native Space in a University Context, Craig Stone (California State University Long Beach, USA)
16. African Cultural Heritage: Erasure, Restitution and Digital Image Regimes, Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
17. Censorship and Creative (Re)Production, Morehshin Allahyari (Artist and Activist, USA) in Conversation with Brittany Ransom (California State University Long Beach, USA)

PART VI. MATTERS OF RACE
18. Provocation and Valuation
Our Compliance and September 2015 Letter to The Spectrum, Ashley Powell (Artist and Activist, USA)
Black Judge Takes the Stand: April 2016 Response, Kara Walker (Artist, USA)
2019 Reflections, Ashley Powell (Artist and Activist, USA)
19. Presentation/Representation: Creative Expression, Speech Rights, and Pedagogy, Jane Conoley (California State University Long Beach, USA), Maulana Karenga (California State University Long Beach, USA), Karen Kleinfelder (California State University Long Beach, USA), Cyrus Parker-Jeannette (Dancer/Choreographer, USA), Michele Roberge (Independent Scholar, USA), Elena Roznovan (Artist, USA) and Cintia Alejandra Segovia (Photographer, USA), Griselda Suarez (Long Beach Arts Council, USA), Andrew Vaca (California State University Long Beach, USA), Jaye Austin Williams (Bucknell University, USA), Terri Yamada (California State University Long Beach, USA)

Afterwords, Svetlana Mintcheva (National Coalition Against Censorship, USA) and Laura Raicovitch (Independent Scholar, USA) in Conversation

List of Contributors
Index

Catha Paquette is Professor of Art History at California State University, Long Beach, USA. She is the author of At the Crossroads: Diego Rivera and His Patrons at MoMA, Rockefeller Center, and the Palace of Fine Arts (2017). In essays published in and outside the US, she has investigated production and reception of Latin American art in Latin America and the US, including promotion, circulation, and acquisition by collectors, public agencies, and private institutions.

Karen L. Kleinfelder is Professor of Art History at California State University, Long Beach, USA. She is the author of The Artist, His Model, Her Image, His Gaze: Picasso’s Pursuit of the Model (1993) and has been published in the exhibition catalogues Picasso: Inside the Image (1995) and Picasso and the Mediterranean (1996). As a specialist in modern and contemporary art and theory, her research interests focus on gender, psychoanalysis, and complexity theory.

Christopher Miles is Professor of Art and director of the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University Long Beach, USA. Among the exhibitions he has co-curated are THING: New Sculpture from Los Angeles (Hammer Museum, 2005) and L.A. Invisible City (Instituto Cervantes, Madrid, 2010). His work has been shown at the ACME gallery, Pasadena Museum of California Art, and Patricia Sweetow Gallery. His writings have been extensively published in art journals and exhibition catalogs.