Nan Goldin's Battle Against Censorship
Also: Street signs against fascism, Gabrielle Goliath's lesson in resistance, and how Joan Miró fell in love with America.
News broke last week that the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) passed on acquiring a work by Nan Goldin after some committee members accused the artist — who is Jewish — of antisemitism over her vocal stance against Israel's genocide in Gaza. In an interview with Hyperallergic today, Goldin calls it what it is: censorship.
The photographer and activist has long defended the human rights of Palestinians and other oppressed people, and denounced the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. The AGO's decision to vote against the acquisition is just the latest incident in a distressing, ongoing pattern of institutions silencing speech in support of Gaza.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Nan Goldin Speaks Out on Art Gallery of Ontario’s Halted Acquisition
“It’s chilling that this censorship plays out especially regarding Palestine, the great exception to free speech,” Goldin said. "I worry about how many other people are experiencing this kind of censorship without it being reported.”
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News
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Attention, Fascism Ahead
An artist who goes by Make it Weird has installed signs mimicking common traffic signage across Philadelphia to alert residents of ICE threats and looming authoritarianism. One of the signs reads: "Somewhere in America, a little girl is hiding in an attic writing about ICE." Isabella Segalovich reports from Philadelphia.
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Opinion
Gabrielle Goliath Strikes a Tuning Fork of Dissent
When South Africa's culture minister abruptly cancelled its Venice Biennale pavilion artwork because it addressed the genocide in Gaza, it seemed a strange yet all-too-familiar contradiction. Why would a nation that accused Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice censor an artwork that mourns Palestinian lives? Was the culture minister merely incompetent and irrational? Scholar M. Neelika Jayawardane, who researches South African art and literature, thinks we're asking the wrong questions. She argues in an opinion today that this example, and the art piece by Gabrielle Goliath at its heart, reveals a broader framework of state censorship that artists are uniquely positioned to resist.
From Our Critics
How Joan Miró and America Fell in Love
“In the future world, America, with its energy and vitality, must play a leading role,” he told Matisse. | Lauren Moya Ford
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Member Comment
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From the Archive
All the Beauty and the Tenderness of Nan Goldin
“I'm not so interested in photography anymore,” Goldin told our editor-in-chief. “That should be the headline,” he replied. | Hakim Bishara
