I am seeking the halt of the auctioning of the painting 'La Patience' by Balthus at Sotheby's on November 13th. Further I am asking the Art Institute of Chicago to cancel the deaccessioning of this painting. 

The Art institute of Chicago has long been a source of pride for the city of Chicago. The deaccessioning of the aforementioned painting lessens the collection as a whole. This is something everyone who loves the Art Institute of Chicago should understand. 

Further the issue goes to the heart of the study of art history. 'La Patience' is an important painting in the history of art. 

The painting gives the viewer a vague uneasy feeling.  A successful work of art should evoke feelings in the viewer even if they are uneasy feelings. The painting was done in 1943 during the middle of World War II.  The painting spoke in 1943. It was not produced in a vacuum. The painting captures a moment in our collective history.

These days some claim Balthus was a pedophile but I can't find any record of his models making such accusations. Whatever scandal surrounded Balthus those at the AIC who accepted the painting into the collection originally must have known more about Balthus the man than we know today. 

Furthermore in the painting 'La patience' the figure is adult and fully clothed. Why then is this painting objectionable? Is it because Balthus painted other paintings that the mob finds objectionable?? 

A few years ago there were protests asking the Metropolitan Museum of Art to deaccession their Balthus paintings but they held fast. The Art Institute of Chicago should do the same. 

A museum is a place of refuge where one can see the arc of the history of art. A museum needs to be a bulwark to changing tastes and the feelings of mobs. A museum needs to protect the old but welcome new work. A museum protects culture. And culture is something that is in short supply in the US. 

This the painting in question does not attack our moral underpinnings but deaccessioning it does.

Once an art teacher said to me "the history of art is conversation". If this is so how can a conversation take place when one generation silences another?

There is something telling in the deaccessioning of a painting titled 'Patience' as we have little patience today.

What is next  to be deaccessioned? Take down Gauguin's paintings because he had sex with underage natives of Tahiti? Take down the paintings of Van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec because they frequented prostitutes? Certainly deaccession the Caravaggios. The 'Woman' series by Willem de Kooning would have to go. Museums have many nude statues - are we to cover them up as well? What about the work of some of Chicago's native sons Ed Paschke and Jim Nutt?

For a museum of the stature of the Art Institute of Chicago to deaccession an important painting by Balthus is an indication of a sickness. The sickness is not pedophilia nor is it prudishness. This sickness is that we have no regard for the past and no tolerance for the different.  It recalls the days of the Nazis who held an exhibition of what they called degenerate art. Much of the art the Nazis labeled  degenerate was destroyed.

I write this now as the world seems to stumble into yet another war. The painting speaks of one war as we stumble into another war.

To deaccessioning 'La patience' is an indication that the Art Institute of Chicago is not doing its job to protect art and the arc of the history of art. Maybe the difference between the MMA and the AIC in their stance on Balthus is perhaps, for all its pretense, the Art Institute of Chicago is a provincial institution.

To deaccession  'La patience' is an assault on culture

To give in to those who find 'La patience' overtly sexual is to put a target on the art being produced today.

Please sign this petition to halt the painting's sale by Sotheby's in November. Please sign this petition to ask the Art Institute of Chicago to rescind the deaccession of this painting.