Opposition to Art Exhibit

Re “When the Government Is a Critic,” Opinion, Oct. 3:

Several members of the elite have vehemently criticized New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s opposition to the feces-covered rendition of the Holy Mother, claiming that the mayor’s threat to eliminate funding is crass governmental censorship. It appears strange that not forcing the taxpayer to pay for something deemed offensive is placed in the same category as having it outlawed.

This elitist argument appears to be based on the premises that all human activities are (or should be) governmental, therefore it is the right and responsibility of the government to assume any task or function regarded by this elite as “worthy.” Opposition is deemed antisocial and akin to the Inquisition.

J. WILLIAM STINDE

Torrance

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Your Sept. 30 editorial in support of the Brooklyn Museum is dead wrong, notwithstanding some lower federal court decisions to the contrary. As a taxpayer, I am entitled not to be insulted about my deeply held religious beliefs by the government I support. Publicly subsidized museums should not provide a forum for patently offensive materials that offend racial, cultural or religious values. These are core values for most people and common decency demands that the government not participate in such assaults. Nor is this a 1st Amendment freedom for the museum. The right to freedom of expression belongs to individuals, not entities. The artist can put his work anyplace that he wants to display it, as long as I don’t have to pay for it.

WILLIAM D. ROBINSON

San Clemente

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“The idea of . . . having . . . so-called works of art in which people are throwing elephant dung at a picture of the Virgin Mary--that’s sick,” Giuliani has said in response to the Brooklyn Museum’s showing of Chris Ofili’s work. The mayor is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but let us please take note of Sophocles’ satyr play, “The Bloodhounds,” in which a gang of satyrs throw “cattle turds” at Apollo--the revered god of beauty, reason and goodness--juxtaposing the sacred and profane with both comic and revelatory impact.

Sophocles was the most revered dramatic poet of his age and is today considered one of the greatest playwrights of all time. Great art--as well as jejune art--is often discomforting and iconoclastic. Time will certainly judge the merits of Ofili’s work--and of Giuliani’s.

ROBERT COHEN

Professor, Drama

UC Irvine