Frohnmayer Ending Stormy Tenure at NEA

John E. Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, resigned Friday after three turbulent years as chief of the country’s primary source of government funding for the arts.

During his years at the NEA, Frohnmayer, an Oregon attorney, found himself charged with censorship by some artists seeking funding for controversial works and blasted by conservative groups and politicians who believed his agency supported obscene and blasphemous art and artists.

Frohnmayer, 49, who will leave his post May 1, could not be reached for comment but he said in a prepared statement that he had met with President Bush last October and expressed a wish to return to private life.

Frohnmayer added that he met with White House staff members Thursday to select a departure date. “He (Bush) was gracious, as always, and left to me the timing of my departure,” Frohnmayer said.

Frohnmayer announced his resignation to the endowment’s staff in an emotional presentation that included him singing the Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” reciting a poem and criticizing what he called the “lunacy” of his agency’s critics.

Among the controversies of his tenure was an ongoing battle with Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) over granting funds to what Helms called “obscene” art, such as the works by the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. And Frohnmayer raised hackles in the art community for denying funds to the so-called “NEA 4,” a group of avant-garde artists whose grants were recommended, then vetoed, in 1990. The group is currently suing the NEA over the grant denial.

Conservatives generally welcomed Frohnmayer’s resignation on Thursday while some of the NEA’s congressional supporters expressed their regrets.

Conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, who is challenging Bush in the Republican primaries, was quoted Thursday by the Associated Press attacking the Administration for “subsidizing both filthy and blasphemous art.”

At a news conference in Marietta, Ga., Vice President Dan Quayle said Frohnmayer’s departure had been in the works for “a long time.”

“This had nothing to do with politics,” Quayle said. He said the resignation would have “little, if any” impact in the Southern primary elections over the next three weeks.

Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) said Friday that he was “saddened” by Frohnmayer’s resignation. “While the Endowment has been under severe attack from the far right, John has consistently been a voice for reason and fairness,” he said.

Despite Frohnmayer’s description of his parting as amicable, Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.), who has been involved in the continuing debate over the NEA funding, said Friday through a spokeswoman that Frohnmayer’s resignation was a sign that the “radical right had triumphed.”

Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.), representing Frohnmayer’s home state, called Frohnmayer’s resignation “a tragedy for all of us who value freedom of expression.”

Joanne Kozberg, executive director of the California Arts Council, said Frohnmayer would be missed by the state because “he had a great understanding of arts councils . . . and also an understanding of the Western region of the United States. From that respect, I appreciated working with him . . . he entered the NEA in a controversial period, and it’s still a difficult period, compounded by current economics.”

Meanwhile, the far right was cheering over Frohnmayer’s resignation. Phyllis Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum, called Frohnmayer the “dirty art czar” and said his departure is “long overdue.”

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, called Frohnmayer the “indecency czar” and said: “The purveyors of government-financed hate art will no longer be feeding from the public trough. Homoerotic avant-garde artists can’t depend on hard-earned taxpayer dollars to fund their agenda.”

Some members of the arts community are unwilling to accept that Frohnmayer’s departure had nothing to do with politics.

One such artist was Tim Miller, artistic director of Santa Monica’s Highways performance space, who has locked horns with Frohnmayer on several occasions. Miller, one of the “NEA 4,” was denied another NEA grant earlier this month when a Highways application containing homoerotic works was deemed lacking in “artistic merit.”

“This process is political from beginning to end,” Miller said. “We’re in an election year . . . I think the next person (appointed to the position) will have virtually no concern about the cultural life of the United States except as it affects the President’s polling.”

Charlotte Murphy, executive director of the National Assn. of Artists’ Organizations, which represents 1,000 community arts groups including Highways, agreed. “I just think it’s really regrettable that what Frohnmayer leaves behind is an NEA that has been compromised and no longer has the trust of the American artists,” she said. “All along, the NEA has been a political target for the far right, and Bush never once tried to fully support either Frohnmayer or the NEA.”

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this story.