FIRST OFF . . .

Artists contributing to two exhibits scheduled to appear at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington this season have withdrawn their work because the museum canceled an exhibit by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, a gallery spokeswoman said Wednesday. The two exhibits were designed to survey trends in contemporary art. A third, much larger exhibit involving Soviet and American artists, also is endangered, officials said. The Mapplethorpe display, which had been scheduled to open July 1, was canceled abruptly by the Corcoran in June amid fears of retribution by Congress as the National Endowment for the Arts agreed to begin looking at the process of federal funding of controversial art shows. The exhibit was then moved to the Washington Project for the Arts, where more than 48,000 people lined up to see the Mapplethorpe photographs. Mapplethorpe, a New York City photographer, recently died of AIDS. The first affected exhibit, “Gallery One: Annette Lemieux,” was scheduled to run from Oct. 28 to Dec. 31, but has been “indefinitely postponed.” The second, a work of six sculptors scheduled for showing next Feb. 3 to April 8, was canceled outright.