NEA and the Arts: The Turmoil Continues : Endowment: The National Endowment for the Arts chairman will “reflect” on the agency’s position after canceling $10,000 grant to fund Manhattan AIDS art exhibit.

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, saying he needed time to “reflect” on the controversy created by his cancellation of a grant for an AIDS art show here, implied Wednesday that the federal arts agency may reconsider its position.

But John E. Frohnmayer declined to say whether the process of reflection might lead to restoration of part or all of a $10,000 grant approved last July for the show, which includes work by 23 artists.

The statement by Frohnmayer came at a press conference here after Frohnmayer met for more than two hours with a group of New York City artists and officials of Artists Space, a Manhattan gallery that plans to open the show, “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing” tonight.

Frohnmayer was highly critical of press coverage of the controversy, saying news accounts, which began Nov. 6 in The Times, forced his hand in what he had hoped would be behind-the-scenes negotiations over the grant. He said media attention had worsened the situation significantly, adding contentiously, “I hope we will not have to respond on the press’ schedule” with final resolution of the controversy.

“I am very hopeful some resolution of this can happen,” Frohnmayer told reporters. “We’re all in a situation where we’re reacting in a climate (in terms of timing) that is not to our liking.”

He said he would “consult” with members of the National Council on the Arts, the endowment’s advisory board, but declined to say whether he would convene a special meeting of the council for that purpose. Such an unprecedented special session was proposed earlier this week by former NEA Chairman Livingston Biddle.

At the same time, Frohnmayer, who last week said he ordered the money impounded because of the “political orientation” of the exhibit and its catalogue, in particular, appeared to change the rationale for the cancellation and set off a furor. The show also contains some sexually explicit images. (The graphic sexuality of images by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in an NEA-supported exhibit helped spark the summer controversy that resulted in insertion of obscenity-control language in the NEA’S 1990 budget bill.)

On Wednesday, however, Frohnmayer gave two reasons for impounding the grant--neither of them having to do with politics. He said the money was withheld because the content of the show changed between the time the grant application was submitted and the show prepared and, he said, “the show did not have the kind of artistic quality (when it was hung) that it did when it (was approved by an NEA review panel earlier this year).”

In an apparently related development, the endowment said conductor Leonard Bernstein had notified White House officials that he would decline a 1989 National Medal of Arts. A Bernstein spokeswoman in New York said the conductor had been invited by President Bush to a White House lunch Friday and by Frohnmayer to a dinner tonight honoring winners of the nation’s highest arts award.

Bernstein’s spokeswoman gave no specific reason for the conductor’s action, but it was learned that he had called Artists Space last week to express concern over the cancellation of the grant and to ask to see a copy of the catalogue for the exhibition.

Developments here and in Washington appeared to be occurring against a backdrop of increasing concern and impatience in Congress to bring calm to the nearly six months of controversy that has enveloped the NEA. In an interview earlier this week, Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) said he hoped a compromise solution would be arrived at quickly in the Artists Space grant dispute.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, fears seemed to be growing that the tempest around the NEA could have the effect of buffeting the endowment to pieces. “I personally think right now there’s a certain amount of exhaustion over this issue,” said Rep. Fred Grandy (R-Iowa), a former actor who played Gopher on “The Love Boat.” “I don’t think this is something we want to continue.”

Among other developments in continuing events at the NEA in Washington:

* The endowment acknowledged that the head of its literature program had resigned. Frohnmayer and NEA spokespersons confirmed that Stephen Goodwin, director of the NEA’s literature program had quit effective next February to return to writing. Frohnmayer emphasized that the resignation was unrelated to a separate controversy, first reported in The Times on Monday over the holding up of five literature fellowship grants over questions of obscenity content in writing samples submitted by applicants.

* Frohnmayer said he had approved the five literature fellowship grants that had been held up for special consideration. Frohnmayer refused to discuss the fellowships, which were separated from a group of applications and singled out for special attention by the National Council on the Arts, the NEA’s advisory body.

The arts council recommended approval of all five grants unanimously, but Frohnmayer’s endorsement of the grants had been withheld for more than a week before he apparently signed and mailed out letters notifying the authors, who the endowment declined to identify.

* The NEA said a San Diego photographer who heads the panel of outside experts who review grant applications to arts groups like Artists Space had also resigned. Elizabeth Sisco reportedly submitted her resignation on the third day of a previously scheduled meeting of the panel. Earlier, a threat by some panel members to boycott the deliberations failed to materialize, but panel members released a statement protesting the action on the Artists Space grant.

Frohnmayer insisted the decision to cancel the “Witnesses” grant did not indicate a lessening of NEA concern with the AIDS epidemic. The show is part of a national arts observance planned for Dec. 1 called Visual AIDS, in which more than 500 arts organizations will schedule special shows, symbolic closures or other events.

New York artist Allen Frame, speaking for the 23 artists who are part of the “Witnesses” exhibition, said in a press conference statement that “it enrages, but does not surprise us that, by expressing ourselves on the subject of AIDS, we are now under attack.

“We refuse to allow the National Endowment for the Arts to become a vehicle for repression. We retain our right to self-expression and we hold (Frohnmayer) and our arts institutions accountable to our community.”

The action Wednesday followed three days of intense activity both here and in Washington in which NEA officials, officials of Artists Space and congressional leaders worked to minimize the damage the new controversy may do to the already shaky political position of the endowment.

Also in Washington, Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.), chairman of the postsecondary education subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee, held a hearing on legislation scheduled for action next year on continuation of the NEA. Williams was scheduled to fly to New York to visit Artists Space and view the show this morning. He has scheduled a press conference here, as well.

The Artists Space controversy first came to public attention early last week when NEA disclosed it was considering asking for voluntary relinquishing of the $10,000 grant.

The grant application, dated November, 1988, shows the gallery sought support for the show, before any specific work had been selected and before curator Nan Goldin had chosen all of the 23 artists scheduled to participate. The practice of applying for funding when an exhibit is still in the formative stages is commonplace.

Last month, Wyatt notified Frohnmayer that some photographs in it may be sexually explicit and that a catalogue essay by artist/photographer David Wojnarowicz was critical of what he viewed as lack of compassion shown to AIDS victims by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Calif.) and New York Cardinal John O’Connor.

In the essay, Wojnarowicz observes that, in his imagination, “I can . . . douse Helms with a bucket of gasoline . . . and throw (Dannemeyer) off the Empire State Building.” It refers to O’Connor as a “fat cannibal,” but observes that “Jesse Helms is, at least, making his attacks on freedom public.”

After disclosure of the potential new controversy and the clear risk that the essay, the photographs and other aspects of the show might reignite the NEA’s summer controversy, Frohnmayer issued an order impounding the grant money last week.

“What had been presented to the endowment by the Artists Space application was an artistic exhibition,” Frohnmayer said. “We find, however, in reviewing the material now to be exhibited that a large portion of the content is political rather than artistic in nature.”

In a speech later in the week, Frohnmayer sought to clarify the original statement and defuse the controversy, saying that his use of the word political did not convey what he had meant, but that the show was still inappropriate for federal support.

In interviews, arts supporters in Congress appealed for calm. One of them--Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.), a personal friend of Frohnmayer--called the NEA chairman’s decision puzzling and potentially troubling.

“I strongly supported John for his nomination (to head the NEA), but I do have a lot of questions about what he believes is at issue here,” AuCoin said in an interview in Washington. “It’s a troubling thing for me and I want to get the answers. I do have some concern that it’s a mistake.

“When it comes to art, I think the fact that public funds are involved should not mean that the freedom of the artist is somehow diminished. I think we should fund artistic expression to allow more artists to stretch further to give us more art--art which challenges, art which inspires and, yes, at times and occasionally, art that shocks.

“But you are ultimately operating in a political sphere and some judgment and restraint is required so you don’t jeopardize the best mechanism we have for promoting and extending the arts. My interest has been in trying to keep (these) blips in the NEA’s history from being turned into swords that will be plunged into the gut of the NEA so as to kill it.”

Grandy said the Artists Space dispute must be viewed not as an isolated incident, but as a part of the continuum of controversy that has beset the endowment for the last six months. “To me, the decision to yank the grant . . . is directly related to the debate that we had on the potential of NEA funding and whether or not taxpayer dollars should go to fund works that may be extensively political in nature, homoerotic or distasteful,” Grandy said.

“What this is going to require ultimately is the federal government is going to have to give a little bit more on the imagination side and the artistic community is going to have to get a little more politically hip.”