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A Wichita art exhibit generated heated reactions and raised provocative questions for venues

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A spectre was haunting Wichita — the spectre of feminism.

Or so you might have thought, based on the intense discussions that swirled on- and offline in the arts circles here surrounding the exhibit titled “Gaze: Power and Politics,” which ran through the end of May at the Mary R. Koch Arts Center, also known as Mark Arts, and which have stayed with me as food for thought since then.

Guest curated by Wichita photographer and arts educator Amanda Pfister, the show was timely and full of excellent artwork. Its historical reference point was an exhibition “dedicated to art by women” that took place 50 years ago, in 1973, at the Wichita Center for the Arts, Mark Arts’ predecessor.

To examine how much has or hasn’t changed in the past 50 years, Pfister invited 20 female artists to contribute their present-day perspectives. To the extent that the show had a message, the only overarching one was that living as a woman encompasses a  diverse array of possible experiences and emotions, from joy and pride to sorrow and anger and much in between.

Most of the artists also live in Wichita or the Great Plains region. In bringing together work by so many artists from Kansas, as well as neighboring Oklahoma and Missouri, the exhibit highlighted the essential role Mark Arts plays in Wichita’s arts ecosystem. It is the biggest and most prominent venue in Kansas’ largest city to create regular exhibition opportunities for local and regional artists.

The other throughline one could notice in “Gaze: Power and Politics” was the curator’s and artists’ conscious effort to speak in the first person about their experiences and show vulnerability in doing so.

Of course, making yourself vulnerable by definition implies taking a risk.

Some of Wichita’s more conservative audiences took it upon themselves to prove that it is, apparently, still risky business in 2023 for women to talk publicly about their experiences of living as women.

By the third week of the exhibit’s run, Mark Arts, which hosts frequent large-scale private events inside its gallery and brings in community members who do not typically engage with contemporary visual art, began to receive complaints. Those upset with works in the exhibition — which featured content warnings at the entrance — reportedly yelled at, berated, and threatened art center staff. The sources of upset were artworks that acknowledged, among other things, that lesbian relationships, pregnancy loss, sex work, and sexual assault exist.

The exhibition title wall for "Gaze: Power and Politics"
The exhibition title wall for “Gaze: Power and Politics” has its original sponsor logos removed. (Ksenya Gurshtein)

In early May, the logos of the exhibition’s lead sponsors, the Koch Family Foundation and Cox Communications, disappeared from the show’s title wall. A police officer appeared at the venue during public hours to offer security.

At the same time, one of the artists in the exhibition, Micala Gingrich Gaylord, chose to permanently modify “Seeing Inside,” one of her two pieces in the exhibition. Made up of gynecological examination tools arranged on the wall roughly in the shape of the artist’s shadow, the piece did not make for easy viewing. I’m not squeamish about human reproductive systems, but for me, it elicited viscerally unpleasant memories of being pinched and prodded in ways that are uncomfortable in every sense of the word. I can easily imagine someone who considers obstetrics to be a topic inappropriate for “polite” or “mixed” company finding the work far more upsetting than I did.

In early May, the artist was asked to temporarily conceal or remove her piece during a private event — a contingency stipulated in the contract artists sign when showing at Mark Arts. The artist took this to be an act of censorship and modified the work permanently by putting all the tools into a cardboard box that sat closed on top of a pedestal.

Kamela Eaton: “We Are,” 2023. Installation view in “Gaze: Power and Politics.” (Ksenya Gurshtein)

All these concurrent kerfuffles are an important impetus for a larger conversation about what roles art institutions play in their communities and what might be a reasonable baseline of expectations in a relationship between an institution and audience members who disagree with the art on view.

Throughout the run of this exhibition, Mark Arts’ leadership was admirably steadfast in fulfilling the commitment that it had made to the curator, the artists, and the patrons who see artistic expression as part of the sacrosanct American right to free speech. The art center also avowed a desire to serve as a space that invites visitors to consider difficult topics and varied viewpoints.

When I wrote to their leadership to express my concern that they might be considering closing the show early, the response I received read: “There is no doubt that the community is engaging in a dialogue about a variety of topics impacting women, and because of this, ‘Gaze is a success.”

At the same time, Mark Arts’ standard operating procedures — in place since 2018 when the center first opened — should, I think, be examined as an important contributing factor for why the institution might have adversarial relationships with both audiences and artists. This is the moment to consider what should change so that its business model is not directly at odds with its stated mission of being a “vibrant arts hub in Wichita and the region.”

Mark Arts’ assumption that an art gallery can seamlessly function as a rental event venue presupposes that the art in the space will always be a pleasant — or, at the very least, unobtrusive and inoffensive — background for wedding receptions, fundraising galas, corporate soirees, and other festive occasions whose planners do not get to pick the art in advance. Indeed, serving as amplifying decor in spaces used for public displays of ritual, power, or prestige is an important function that art has served historically.

Layered on top of that function, however, is a kind of purpose parfait whose strata date to different historical eras and discourses. Art serves numerous other uses: from memorialization of specific people and events to highly individualized expressions of artists’ identities; from formal experimentation to communal storytelling; from demonstrations of extravagant craftsmanship to exercises in creative resourcefulness, and so on.

A role that dominates a lot of “contemporary” art (and has done so in Western art since at least the 19th century) is that of critical reflection, intervention, or outright activism meant to provoke public discussion of challenging topics, underrepresented perspectives, and unresolved social problems.

This is, indeed, what many of the works in “Gaze: Power and Politics” attempted to do. It is the paradigm they function in; a feature and not a bug.

But if making viewers — all viewers — uncomfortable or perturbed at some level is a core intention of the works to which Mark Arts wants to be committed, wedging them into a space frequently dedicated to the maximum comfort of its users (I too wouldn’t want to look at speculums at my wedding) does a disservice to all parties involved, not least staff, who have to reconcile conflicting needs while worrying about the safety of the art with which they’ve been entrusted.

These paintings by Lydia Humphreys were based on workshops with survivors of sexual assault. Installation view in “Gaze: Power and Politics.” (Ksenya Gurshtein)

Lastly, what of dissent? If artists want to elicit big reactions from their audiences, rejection is bound to be one of those reactions. There is, indeed, a long history of vocal protest mounted against exhibitions by different groups for different reasons.

Knowing some of that history, I draw the conclusion that most people in the future, just like many in the present, will not look kindly on cases in which members of a powerful, culturally dominant group with ample access to money, spaces for self-expression, and communal connection try to shut down attempts by members of far less visible and under-resourced minorities to speak their personal truths.

Even given this, I still firmly believe that arts institutions have to expect occasional pushback against their work and create space for feedback to be heard in the context of dialogue and an effort to learn. A discussion panel originally planned and subsequently canceled at Mark Arts to accompany “Gaze: Power and Politics” would have offered a forum for at least the possibility of dialogue.

Not hosting it was, I believe, Mark Arts’ great missed opportunity with this project. The panel was held instead by the curator and several of the artists on the last day of the exhibition at Harvester Arts, a far smaller venue that caters to people already on board with the idea that art can and should be challenging.

That said, let’s go back to the first signs that things were amiss. Threats and intimidation? Immediate attempts at defunding? The presumptuous assumption that a secular institution funded by private money committed a grave error because it did not privilege someone’s particular set of religious beliefs?

Those all foreclose the possibility of dialogue. Contemporary arts institutions are grappling with how to do better at serving their diverse communities. Many genuinely want to hear and learn from their audiences.

As they do so, though, they are still staffed by human beings entitled to the same rights to safety, dignity, and courtesy that we grant all other civilian professions. Anyone who does not understand this is a disgrace to their cause.

Ksenya Gurshtein is a curator, art historian and writer living in Wichita. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

 

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A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.

More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.

The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.

They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.

“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”

It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.

Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”

Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.

“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Calvin Lucyshyn: Vancouver Island Art Dealer Faces Fraud Charges After Police Seize Millions in Artwork

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In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.

Alleged Fraud Scheme

Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.

Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.

Massive Seizure of Artworks

In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.

Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.

Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed

In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.

Court Proceedings Ongoing

The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.

Impact on the Local Art Community

The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.

For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.

As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.

While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.

Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.

As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.

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Ukrainian sells art in Essex while stuck in a warzone – BBC.com

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Ukrainian sells art in Essex while stuck in a warzone  BBC.com



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