Ruling Asked Before Photo Show Opened : Obscenity: But, the art center counsel testifies, the Mapplethorpe exhibit was never considered unlawful.

Officials at the gallery that displayed Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs thought the exhibit would be exempt from obscenity laws but tried to get legal protection before the show anyway, a board member testified today.

“At no time did we consider it obscene,” said Stuart Schloss, legal counsel for the Contemporary Arts Center. “It was a serious artistic exhibit.”

He testified that gallery officials thought the artistic merit of the exhibit made it exempt from Ohio’s obscenity laws, though they expected they would get complaints from the public.

Schloss said, however, that the board took the precaution of filing a lawsuit before the exhibit asking the Hamilton County Municipal Court to rule whether the exhibit was obscene.

The suit, intended to forestall any prosecution, was never heard and was dismissed April 6. The judge ruled the plaintiffs had no standing to file such a suit.

The following day, the exhibit “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment” began its seven-week public run. The same day, a Hamilton County grand jury returned misdemeanor indictments charging the gallery and its director, Dennis Barrie, with pandering obscenity and using children in nudity-related material.

The defense had said that the case might go to the jury later today after testimony from Barrie.

In other testimony today, art critic Owen Findsen of the Cincinnati Enquirer testified under subpoena from defense lawyers. He said that based on his 20 years as a Cincinnati art critic, he thought the Mapplethorpe exhibit contained artistic merit.

The Enquirer had tried to quash the subpoena for Findsen at a hearing in court Tuesday, but Judge David Albanese refused to set aside the subpoena.