Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: Medium
But photographer Edgar Boshart, who contributed the picture to an artists' display at the center, says that's not the case and he's a victim of censorship.
"[This is] something you would see in the Soviet Union," Boshart said.
But Arts Council President Toni McMahon says the photograph on canvas was removed so as to not offend anyone.
"It's an effort to be as non-issue oriented as possible," she said.
The council's guidelines say religious exhibits can't be included in the government center. The council devised the guidelines 18 months ago along with the county government and other arts organizations.
The guidelines also ban depictions of nudes, weapons, drug paraphernalia and violence. The walls of the seat of county government also may not support art that contains "political expression" or "unpatriotic subjects."
Boshart's image of the Taos, New Mexico, church was among 400 works by local artists hung in the county building over the weekend.
It was also one of four pieces that was removed.
Others included a picture of a 92-year-old man wearing Jewish prayer shawl and reading from a prayer book; the other two depicted "cult activity," McMahon said.
The picture of the elderly man was by Esta Gladstone, a professional photographer from Springfield who, like Boshart, is a member of the Northern Virginia Photographic Society, which was one of the groups that approved the guidelines.
"It was a memory of my grandfather, knowing this is the way he chose to live his life," Gladstone said. "I was trying to promote portraiture, not religion."
Boshart, an Arlington photographer who says he practices no formal religion, was angry.
"That the Arts Council or a group of artists would shoot themselves in the foot and agree to this sort of thing astounds me," he said.
McMahon said she didn't see the other two works removed and couldn't describe them in detail.
She says nearly 3,200 works of art have been displayed at the government center since the showcases began a year ago, and only 10 have been removed for various reasons.
Gladstone submitted one other photo in addition to the portrait of her grandfather. It is a still life of a wineglass inside a brandy snifter.
"Drug paraphernalia," she said.
by CNB