NEA to Settle With Artists for Rejected Grants : Art: Four will receive $252,000 in exchange for dropping some claims in lawsuit. They said applications were turned down for political reasons.

The National Endowment for the Arts agreed Friday to pay $252,000 to four artists whose grant applications were rejected in 1990 amid conservative complaints that the government was supporting obscene art.

The artists--Los Angeles-based John Fleck and Tim Miller along with New York-based Karen Finley and Holly Hughes--agreed to accept the money in exchange for dropping some of the claims contained in a lawsuit they filed in September, 1990, NEA spokeswoman Ginny Terzano said.

The four had accused John Frohnmayer, who was chairman of the NEA at the time, of rejecting their applications on political rather than artistic grounds.

Depositions Frohnmayer gave during the long legal dispute proved that he did not follow proper procedures, Terzano said.

“The evidence that we used in weighing the settlement is based on his recent testimony he made under oath in preparation for a trial,” she said.

During Frohnmayer’s controversial tenure, conservative lawmakers and religious groups cited earlier grants as evidence of the NEA’s willingness to use taxpayers’ money to subsidize obscene or anti-religious works.

Acting under anti-obscenity restrictions imposed by Congress at the behest of Sen. Jesse Helms, (R-N.C.), Frohnmayer rejected the applications in June, 1990, and refused to consider appeals.

At the time, Frohnmayer said the artists’ projects--solo theater performances--would not “enhance public understanding and appreciation of the arts.”

Congress repealed the obscenity ban in October, 1990, and substituted the “decency” requirement.

Friday’s settlement does not address the part of the suit that challenges an NEA rule requiring that grants be given only to artwork that conforms to “general standards of decency.” The artists claimed that rule was unconstitutional.