Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260253
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yet, Barrie - as a museum curator - perhaps has fought as hard to get artists' views heard and seen as any artist could.
It is that fight - against censorship - that Barrie talked about to a crowd at Radford University's Preston Hall on Monday night.
"The threat to that freedom [of expression] is there every day," said Barrie. "The issues are so much with us that even three years later there is much to learn from the Robert Mapplethorpe case."
Three years ago, a jury acquitted Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati of obscenity charges after an exhibit of Mapplethorpe's photographs was displayed at the center.
Barrie, now director of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, was the art gallery's director at the time. It was the first time an American art gallery had been put on trial.
Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in March 1989, was known for his portrayal of homoerotic themes, and the exhibit was criticized for its images of men in sadomasochistic poses and of semi-nude children.
Barrie's trial continued a debate over what separates art from obscenity, touched off after Congress limited funding to the National Endowment for the Arts, in part because Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., called the photos obscene.
That debate, though altered in direction, rages on, Barrie said.
Barrie focused much of his hour-long discussion on the past, telling of the joy of speaking in the months after the trial to jurors who told him, "We're not interested in censorship by government bodies."
The exhibit was made up of 175 photographs, but it was seven in particular that were the trial's focus. Only those seven were shown to the jury.
The irony of the controversy was the fame it brought to Mapplethorpe's work and name, he said. During the six weeks that the exhibit remained opened - at a judge's order - 81,000 people came to see it. The previous high for an exhibit was 35,000.
"Before that, they didn't know who he was," Barrie argued. "After that, he probably became the most famous artist in the last half of the 20th century."
Barrie, who speaks at college campuses nationwide, says he no longer shows the photographs because, "The issue is much greater than those. They represent one battle."
The fight continues and the enemies, Barrie said, are self-censorship; political correctness; and most important, the religious right, which has gone on to attack more mainstream media, including music, film and television.
"There is a drive toward censorship going on, whether it comes from college administrators or Pat Buchanan," he said.
These days, the most controversial thing in America is the MTV show "Beavis and Butthead," Barrie said.
" `Beavis and Butthead' is so powerful, is so controversial that it cannot be shown at 7 p.m. and has to be on at 11 p.m.," he said. The show's air time was changed recently after a girl was killed in a fire started by her 5-year-old brother, whose mother claimed was inspired by the characters' penchant for lighting fires.
Barrie said he's not opposed to guides in the form of movie ratings or music labels that warn against allowing young children to watch or listen without parental involvement.
But he could not define what his limits would be on showing an exhibition. He said, however, "Do I think that 10-year-olds are ready for the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition? - No."
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.