Impropriety Not the Issue

While I normally look forward to Leah Ollman’s visual-arts review in the Calendar section, I am compelled to express my deep disappointment with her article (Collectors’ Clout Raises Question of Ethics for Museums, Oct. 28).

Rather than offer any bona fide review or criticism of the (“Local Color”) exhibition itself, Ollman’s article is nothing more than a collection of unfounded innuendoes concerning the supposedly inextricable conflict between the artistic integrity of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and the interests/motives of LJMCA’s patrons and trustees who collect art. At bottom, Ollman’s treatment of the subject and of LJMCA itself is shamefully unprofessional.

The concern underlying Ollman’s article appears to be based on the notion that the artistic integrity of a museum may be compromised, if not lost altogether, if trustees or other patrons who collect art become too influential with respect to the institution’s exhibition or accession policies. Indeed, the issues surrounding this concern are not only timely, but deserving of significantly more attention than they have received.

However, Ollman neither explores these issues on an intelligent level nor provides any facts whatsoever which would indicate that there is cause for concern about the situation at LJMCA. Nonetheless, Ollman clearly intends for her readers to be left with the impression that “Local Color” represents the result of a greed-driven conspiracy among LJMCA’s trustees, members of its Contemporary Collectors group and members of its staff.

On the contrary, there is simply no reason to believe that either “Local Color” or the existence of the Contemporary Collectors group represent a threat to LJMCA’s integrity. The emphasis of the Contemporary Collectors program is education and awareness--not private acquisition. Indeed, LJMCA’s director and curatorial staff have consistently and openly discouraged members of the group from approaching art as an economic investment. Furthermore, it is neither surprising nor in any respect unethical that many of LJMCA’s chief supporters have a keen interest in learning about and collecting contemporary art. If that were not the case, LJMCA’s situation would be truly unhealthy--left to rely on the patronage of those who care little or nothing about the art which is at the core of the museum’s program.

If anything, the lenders to the “Local Color” exhibition should be applauded for their generosity to LJMCA and their willingness to share their private interests with the public. The exhibition was conceived, quite simply, as a vehicle for demonstrating the quality and range of contemporary art in our own community. In turn, serious criticism of the exhibition should focus on the quality of the works in the exhibition or the artistic criteria that went into selecting them.

MICHAEL L. KRICHMAN

Trustee

La Jolla Museum

of Contemporary Art