by Sam Frank with Lene Berg
Has a 1953 drawing of Stalin been censored by the Cooper Union in 2008? A dossier of evidence, for and against.
Lene Berg’s Stalin by Picasso, or Portrait of Woman with Moustache is one work and three: a book; a video; and a set of three banners, one picturing Stalin, one Picasso, and one Berg holding over her face a 1953 drawing of Stalin by Picasso, to be hung on a building’s facade. (Triple Canopy gave the video its US premiere at our April launch party.) She intended to debut the works on March 5, 2008, the fifty-fifth anniversary of Stalin’s death, at the People’s Theater in Oslo, and received approval in September 2007. In January, permission for the banners was revoked by the building’s board; press inquiries revealed that an offended Martin Kolberg, secretary of the Labor Party (Arbeiderpartiet, or Ap), had intervened. (The People’s Theater houses Ap headquarters.) A subsequent invitation to raise the banners on the City Hall of Bergen, Norway, came to nothing, except another uproar. One headline read, JA TIL STALIN!—Yes to Stalin!
New York City’s Cooper Union college approached Berg in August about an autumn show; she agreed, if she could hang the banners on the school’s historic Foundation Building, as well as display the book and video. The exhibit opened as planned October 29. Then, on October 31, without notifying Berg, the administration had the banners removed. Berg learned of this from exhibition curator Sara Reisman on November 1 and demanded her show be shut down. Only on November 6 did the college issue a statement, which blamed a permit violation. It also mentioned the seventy-fifth anniversary, on November 15, of the Holodomor, the forced starvation of millions of Ukrainians by Stalin, which the neighborhood’s Ukrainian community was planning to commemorate nearby.
What follows are video excerpts of Stalin by Picasso; documentation of the installation, controversy, and de-installation, in the form of materials provided by Berg and culled from the Internet; and a statement.
New York City’s Cooper Union college approached Berg in August about an autumn show; she agreed, if she could hang the banners on the school’s historic Foundation Building, as well as display the book and video. The exhibit opened as planned October 29. Then, on October 31, without notifying Berg, the administration had the banners removed. Berg learned of this from exhibition curator Sara Reisman on November 1 and demanded her show be shut down. Only on November 6 did the college issue a statement, which blamed a permit violation. It also mentioned the seventy-fifth anniversary, on November 15, of the Holodomor, the forced starvation of millions of Ukrainians by Stalin, which the neighborhood’s Ukrainian community was planning to commemorate nearby.
What follows are video excerpts of Stalin by Picasso; documentation of the installation, controversy, and de-installation, in the form of materials provided by Berg and culled from the Internet; and a statement.
—Sam Frank, November 13, 2008
The Stalin by Picasso Case
They say speech is free, at least if you’re invited to speak.On invitation, Ms. Lene Berg hung three banners on the Cooper Union: two photographs of Pablo Picasso and Joseph Stalin, and one photograph of Ms. Berg holding a Picasso drawing of Stalin. Without discussion these articles disappeared after two days of exhibition.
What were the grounds for rescinding Ms. Berg’s banners:
1. Some contend it was permits, a plain lack of paperwork.
2. Others, the banners were immoral, an insult to those starved by Stalin’s regime and to their descendants.
Now the question of permits has no importance. Permits are a cover for bureaucrats, like slippers for cold feet.
To claim that Ms. Berg’s banners are immoral, or intended as an insult, is absurd. The drawing of Stalin has never been appreciated by Stalin lovers, which the video and the book make clear. Ms. Berg took an artifact of history, placed it so that it could be seen with contemporary eyes—created a new frame for that object.
The question now is: Was it Stalin who was removed from the Cooper Union’s facade, or was it Picasso? Or was it a portrait of a woman with moustache?
Sources:
Sewell Chan, “Stalin Joins Lenin in the East Village,”
New York Times City Room blog, October 27,
2008, 5:41 p.m.
Stalin Go Home Facebook group
Sewell Chan, “Cooper Union Tears Down That Stalin
Barrier,” New York Times City Room blog,
November 7, 2008, 5:29 p.m.
More:
Clancco analysis
The Art Law Blog analysis
New York Civil Liberties Union statement
Sewell Chan, “Stalin Banner’s Removal Draws More
Questions,” New York Times City Room blog,
November 14, 2008, 2:11 p.m.
Contact:
Lene Berg/Triple Canopy: Sam Frank