Tate hit by ‘woke’ storm over delay to satirical KKK show
A SENIOR Tate Modern curator has been suspended after criticising the museum’s decision to postpone an exhibition for fear of ‘offending the racial justice movement’.
Mark Godfrey had been organising a retrospective of Philip Guston, an acclaimed 20th- century painter who used comic-like images of the Ku Klux Klan to critique racism in the USA.
Despite Guston’s message of equality, bosses at Tate Modern, as well as three American institutions, have mothballed the show until 2024, apparently for fear of offending visitors.
The galleries said in a statement: ‘We are postponing the exhibition until a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the centre of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.’
Critics said the galleries were suggesting visitors would not be intelligent enough to recognise satirical imagery or to understand the value of being confronted with images of bigotry.
Statues have been pulled down and buildings renamed in the UK in the wake of Black Lives Matter movement but this is the first time it has been linked to the cancellation of a major exhibition. Boris Johnson has previously rebuked the ‘cancel culture’, seen in many universities, and said that trying to censor difficult truths would be to ‘impoverish the education of generations to come’.
Mr Godfrey was suspended by Tate Modern after he called the museum’s decision ‘ extremely patronising to viewers’, the Art Newspaper reported.
He wrote in an Instagram post: ‘Cancelling or delaying the exhibition is probably motivated by the wish to be sensitive to the imagined reactions of particular viewers, and the fear of protest.
‘ However, it is actually extremely patronising to viewers, who are assumed not to be able to appreciate the nuance and politics of Guston’s works.’
The decision to suspend him was also l ambasted by the arts community.
Robert Storr, professor of painting at Yale School of Art, said: ‘ Museums are forums where people come together to discuss ideas and to agree and disagree. If Tate can’t even do this internally, then the whole thing breaks down.
‘Tate is going to need curators of Mr Godfrey’s calibre to steer itself out of the mess it is in. The museum should embrace such people, not ostracise them.’
Mr Storr said he fears the exhibition may never happen because of the controversy over its postponement.
Art historian and broadcaster Dr Bendor Grosvenor added: ‘A museum that behaves like this is not fit to champion British art.’ A source told the Art Newspaper: ‘If you work at Tate, you are expected to toe the party line.
‘There is very little tolerance for dissent and an increasingly autocratic managerial style.’ The Tate declined to comment.
‘Extremely patronising’