Sen. Torres Urges Rejection of Jesse Helms Amendment

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) on Friday equated Sen. Jesse Helms’ (R-N.C.) bid to ban public funding of controversial artworks with the the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Helms is using the same standard that Iran used (when Khomeini condemned ‘Satanic Verses’ author Salman Rushdie),” Torres said, as he announced the introduction of a legislative directive “demanding that Congress reject any repressive measures such as the Helms amendment.”

Torres’ resolution, which legally cannot be binding on Congress or California’s congressional delegation, will ask Congress to reject Helms’ legislation barring federal funding for any art work in any medium that is considered “offensive” or “indecent.” The U.S. Senate is also considering related legislation transfering $400,000 from this year’s budget of the National Endowment for the Arts visual arts program to other activities--a move some arts advocates see as an attempt by political conservatives to punish the endowment for funding controversial works.

Instead, Torres’ resolution will ask Congress to allocate $100,000 for an outside party to conduct an independent review of the process by which federal endowment grants are made.

“California will be the first state to enact such a resolution,” Torres said at a press conference at the Museum of Contemporary Art. “Senate President Pro-tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and I have discussed the language of the resolution . . . and the support is there.”

Torres added that he expected his Senate Resolution 42, which is scheduled for a Senate Rules Committee hearing in a few days, to be on the floor of the legislature by “no later than the end of next week.”

“If there’s some problem, then lets fix the panel, not remove it from existence,” Torres said.

The current system “has served the nation and its artists for 25 years (and) has funded some 80,000 grant applications, only 20 of which have engendered any controversy whatsoever,” said Joy Silverman, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions executive director, who spoke in support of Senate Resolution 42. “This is a remarkable record, one of exceptional success for any government agency.”

“It is the nature of great art to risk intellectual and emotional provocation,” said Silverman, who compared what she called Helms’ attempt to define art with a quote from Adolf Hitler: “Art must be the handmaiden of sublimity and beauty and thus promote whatever is natural and healthy. If art does not do this, then any money spent on it is squandered.”

Also speaking Friday in support of Senate Resolution 42 was Gordon Davidson, artistic director and producer of the Mark Taper Forum, and Richard Koshalek, director of the Museum of Contemporary art.