Private Art Funding

Susan Kandel has a “Botero” on her shoulder (“Exploring Comic Potential of Immensity With Botero,” Calendar, Nov. 16). Here we have a private gallery giving a free show, which can give pleasure to anyone walking or driving on Santa Monica Boulevard, and she has fears about this tending toward the “mind-numbing pleasantries” of private funding! Well, maybe we should refuse what one gallery has so generously set up and insist that only government funded art--especially conceptual junk--be the only art we should enjoy. I also recall, when the Henry Moore exhibition was on, the same sort of criticism from The Times. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. We are fortunate to have two private galleries, at their own expense, set up sculptures by two eminent artists, and Susan Kandel is worried about this diet of excellence numbing our minds.

SHIRLEY SACKS

Beverly Hills