The above two items are from Charles Krafft's webpage, here. |
If I were a museum curator, I would not want a Holocaust denier's work on display.
But ... I still value films by Roman Polanski, a man guilty of rape. And I like Wagner's music. I don't have the final answer. This work, though, I would not want in a museum. I don't think it fills an artistic need, and I think it can too easily be understood as being pro-Nazi.
Link to the Studio 360 broadcast here.
Judging by just the two pics, his work is sardonic / ironic / wry, but definitely not pro-Nazi.
ReplyDeleteThis whole matter, once again, points to the double standard which has been brought up and discussed in several previous blogspots.
ReplyDeleteIf the artist had been found out to be anti-Polish or anti-Christian, would such a big deal (or ANY big deal) be made of that? I rather doubt it.
It again all boils down to which group is considered a victim group, and which group isn't.
I think it's several different kinds of double standard.
DeleteIf a Polish artist made similar statements and produced similar art, there would be no attempt to whitewash it.
Certainly. But why so? Largely because Poles are not a victim group, and so have less "right" to say unwelcome things than do members of so-defined victim groups. To even try to whitewash a comparable statement by a Pole would have been futile to begin with.
ReplyDeleteWhat is there anti-Polish or pro-Nazi in those works, or any other of his, for that matter? I have had a look at his website and I must say I was really impressed with his subversive and bitterly funny viewpoint. I would rate him and Banksy as two real artists of our time.
ReplyDeleteYou are confusing victim status which is evidence of POWER with actual victimhood which is not.
ReplyDeletePoles may be victimized but will never have victim status because they have no POWER.
And they will never have power because power, by definition, is relative, and there are already too many pigs at the trough.
"Poles may be victimized but will never have victim status because they have no POWER."
ReplyDeleteExactly right.