Sunday, October 3, 1999
NEW YORK — The controversial “Sensation” exhibit opened Saturday amid heated protests outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art — and a massive show of support from art lovers.
Nearly 1,000 mostly Catholic protesters prayed, clutched rosary beads and held signs denouncing the exhibit, which includes a portrait titled “The Holy Virgin Mary” decorated with elephant dung.
“Enough is enough; We draw the line here,” shouted Desiree Bernstein, a member of an evangelical church on Staten Island. “This is not art to me. This is an abomination.”
But block-long lines also snaked outside the museum as a near-record number of supporters waited to see the explosive show.
Museum officials opened the doors early to accommodate a massive crush of visitors — many of whom passionately defended the museum’s right to have the exhibit.
“I don’t feel it’s offensive at all,” said Julie Durkin, 21, a student at Parsons School of Design. “People just need to be open-minded.”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who started the controversy over the show when he denounced it 10 days ago, was nowhere to be seen.
Aides said the mayor — who slashed city funding and plans to sue to evict the century-old museum — did not plan to comment on the opening.
He seemed like the only New Yorker keeping his lips sealed Saturday, as protesters of all stripes created a near-carnival atmosphere outside the stately museum on Eastern Parkway.
Conservative politicians blasted the exhibit as a “hate crime.” Catholic activists handed out anti-exhibit vomit bags, and a nun held a sign reading, “Defend your Holy Mother against this porno.”
They were joined in an unlikely alliance by animal rights activists, who object to several works in the exhibit that include dead animals.
“There’s a fundamental difference between free expression and art that causes harm to living beings,” said Adam Weissman of the Animal Defense League.
On the other side of the trenches in the budding cultural war, a potpourri of artists and First Amendment advocates also rallied behind a separate set of police barricades.
Gary Schwartz, executive director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, handed out leaflets reading, “Hey, Rudy, I’m a taxpayer too.”
“The purpose of art is to challenge,” Schwartz said. “Whether it offends some people shouldn’t determine whether other people can see a painting.”
One artist dressed in a Grim Reaper costume to dramatize Giuliani’s supposed antipathy toward the arts. Others held signs of the mayor’s face splattered with dung.
Despite the tension, the protests were peaceful, with police reporting only a few shouting matches. One veteran anti-Giuliani protester, Robert Lederman, was arrested when he refused to stay behind the barricades, police said.
Police said there was a bomb threat at the building earlier.
SHOWING: Betsy Feliciano, above left, carries a picture of the Virgin Mary during a protest Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Viewers, left, examine Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary” during opening day of the British exhibit.
MUSEUM SHOWING: John Dixon looks at “Angel” a silicone and acrylic sculpture by artist Ron Mueck during the opening day of the controversial British “Sensation” exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York on Saturday. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani opposes the show.
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