ART REVIEW : Deluge of Gay and Erotic Art for the OUT Auction Benefit : Fund-raiser: More than 600 artists offer nearly 1,000 works in a three-day event designed to protest censorship attempts.

What’s astonishing about the three-day OUT Auction, which begins at 8 tonight at the 18th St. Arts Complex in Santa Monica, is the sheer volume of support the fund-raising event has generated.

Designed in response to the National Endowment for the Arts censorship controversies of the last two years, which focused principally on artists who are gay or lesbian, the OUT Auction was conceived as a public declaration of dissent against political suppression of art.

Open to any artist, gay or not, who wished to “come out” against censorship and homophobia, the OUT Auction has drawn submissions representing a whopping roster of more than 600 artists. Among them are John Baldessari, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, Nancy Spero and other artists of international stature.

Vincent Price--perhaps the only movie star to have studied at London’s prestigious Courtauld Institute, before switching from art history to acting--signed on as an honorary chairman. And for every famous name that can be cited, 20 others ranging from the less-familiar to the downright obscure can be identified.

In the art world, the depth and breadth of feeling about the subject clearly run strong. Given the volume, what’s less astonishing about this vigorous expression of solidarity is that most of the art to be auctioned leaves a good bit to be desired.

Probably a majority (but by no means all) of the nearly 1,000 works present gay or lesbian subject matter, or erotic themes. What makes this proliferation unsurprising is that, in a culture saturated by images of all kinds, candid depictions of the ordinary lives of gay men and lesbians are virtually nonexistent. Painting, photography and other mediums provide a “do-it-yourself” remedy to the deformation created by this social and cultural repression.

Almost always, however, it seems the simple depiction of homosexual subjects in this work is believed to guarantee artistic merit. But it does not. The mere presence of legitimate subject matter can’t be confused with aesthetic significance because, in the final analysis, any subject at all is legitimate for art. How the subject is handled is what counts. Here, it’s rarely handled well.

Happily, though, the OUT Auction means to refuse political attempts to keep homosexuality in a ghetto, whether social or artistic. It plans to put its money where its mouth is too. Proceeds from the auction, which organizers estimate might reach $250,000, will go to the sponsoring Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center and to the Woman’s Building. And 10% will be used to establish the new National Fund for Lesbian and Gay Artists, which will provide grants to artists who choose to deal with gay themes.

18th St. Arts Complex, 1633 18th St., Santa Monica , (213) 464-7400, Ext. 403, Friday through Sunday, 8 p.m.