The International Association of Art Critics (AICA) wishes to express disappointment over the decision to postpone the retrospective, Philip Guston Now, which was to open at the National Gallery Washington DC, June 2021 (other venues: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tate Modern, London, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). AICA is a global organization, established in 1948, comprising art critics who desire to improve international cooperation and fellowship in fields of artistic creativity, mediation and endeavor. AICA’s core value is freedom of expression and resisting any threat to it.
Philip Guston Now, rescheduled for 2024, could easily become a watered-down solo show. From the New York Times, September 25, 2020, “The decision came after museums organizing the exhibition decided that Guston’s familiar motif of cartoonish, haggard white–hooded Ku Klux Klansmen needed to be better contextualized for the current political moment.”
AICA International urges the National Gallery Washington DC to desist from punishing artist for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression. AICA International strongly deplores the National Gallery Washington DC attitude is the opposite of the international rights to freedom of expression.
