“Art need not defer to religion. If that’s no longer obvious we’ve gone astray.”
(Michelle Goldberg)
(Michelle Goldberg, “A Left-Leaning College Didn’t Want to Offend, So It Closed Down Her Art Show,” New York Times, 2-13-23)
The story of what befell the work of Iranian-American artist Taravat Talepasand at Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota) is as disheartening as what transpired several weeks ago at Hamline University only a short distance away. (It’s telling that The Times includes no images of Talepasand’s offending art.)
Goldberg’s art-not-deferring summation is attractive and aspirational, but it’s pie in the sky, I’m afraid. Full-throated art always tangles with something — often it’s with religiosity (faith’s evil twin). Henry Louis Gates Jr. elsewhere calls the urge to censor art “a symbolic form of vigilante policing.” There’s a lot of it about.
(c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
EthicalDative 
Here is to full throated art!
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Hear here! Thank you for the shout.
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I often say – Art galleries are my cathedrals.
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It’s a fine analogy. I concur.
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