ARTIST ACCUSES MUSEUM OF CENSORING WORK CONTAINING NUDE IMAGES

AVV 12-17 #722

DULUTH, MINN. (AP) — An art exhibit containing nude images was recently covered when a group of fifth- and sixth-grade students visited the museum on the Duluth campus of the University of Minnesota, and the artist is calling it censorship.

Neal Peterson’s exhibit, “Thirteen Pieces of Paper,’’ includes a graphic sex scene from Hustler magazine, Michaelangelo’s Adam and Eve, an Anne Geddes photo of a nude mother with child and a Jeff Koons photograph aiming to portray pornography as art. The images are juxtaposed to raise questions about how people perceive them separately and together.

Ken Bloom, director of the Tweed Museum of Art, said the content was not appropriate for children — but Peterson questioned the museum’s actions.

“I think they weren’t expecting something of this nature and may be avoiding the issue of the work being provocative so it doesn’t look like censorship,’’ Peterson said of the exhibit, which closed December 21.

Bloom said temporarily covering the exhibit during the children’s visit December 12 was not censorship. He also said Peterson misled museum employees about the exhibit.

“I had assumed it had been reviewed by faculty and it would have been appropriately presented,’’ Bloom said. “If you want to make a statement, how about doing it the right way? No one has been censored.”