Chicago City Council hearing on art display some call antisemitic gets heated
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A piece of art at the Chicago Cultural Center set off a heated discussion in City Council Chambers Tuesday.
The display, titled "U.S-Israel War Machine," is part of an exhibit on puppets. A group of alderpeople want it removed.
One puppet in the exhibit depicts "Uncle Sam" with a bloody face, and a t-shirt with the image of a tank, the word "money," and the words "thank you" and a smiley face.
Another puppet depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a bomb, with blood on his hands.
The wooden bases supporting the puppets include the words "child killers."
The City Council did not vote on anything with regard to the artwork Tuesday, but alders did go on for hours discussing how art pieces are selected and go into city-owned spaces.
It turned into a debate about the freedom of expression, possible antisemitism, and the use of taxpayer dollars.
The City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation has sometimes been called the "fun committee." But at a meeting of just that committee on Tuesday, speakers used the words "obnoxious." Some called the demands to remove the artwork "an attack on free speech," while others described the art in question as part of a "pattern of disrespect and disregard by the Mayor's office."
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) spearheaded efforts to remove the display at the Cultural Center. The artwork is part of the exhibit "Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close"—which is described as a display that "challenges expectations about puppetry and inspires the public to tell their own stories."
Silverstein and her supporters feel the "U.S.-Israel War Machine" is antisemitic. The hearing Tuesday was meant to help alders understand how the piece was chosen for display.
"When art is deemed controversial, there is a process," said Clinée Hedspeth, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. "That process did not happen."
Hedspeth explained the complainant is supposed to meet with the curator and the artist to find common ground. In this case, a wall plaque, along with a "death count," was removed and replaced for possibly displaying sensitive content that could be perceived as opinion.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th) questioned why the puppets were not also removed.
Conway: "What made you go ahead and remove that wall panel?"
Hedspeth: "It didn't identify who the creator was, and it was an opinion piece."
Conway: "Are you saying that Jewish people are greedy, money-driven puppeteers is a fact? Is a fact?"
Another exchange had alders calling for Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) to be removed.
"Talk about the process!" Sigcho-Lopez said. "White supremacist!"
Committee Chairman Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) called for the dramatic back-and-forth to stop. It was extinguished.
Conway later said Sigcho-Lopez told him the "white supremacist" remark was not directed personally at him.
"We talked about it behind closed doors. He apologized and said that those remarks were not directed towards me," Conway said. "I have no desire to escalate. I appreciate him doing that, and I have no desire to escalate this."
In the meeting, alders also discussed how to make outdoor festivals safer by using barriers to block cars from pedestrians. One big question is the expense.
Alders references 1988 controversy involving artwork depicting Mayor Harold Washington
During the hearing Tuesday, two alders brought up another controversial artwork that also drew the ire of members of the Chicago City Council nearly 37 years ago — to the point where some alders came to take it right off the wall where it was being displayed.
On May 11, 1988, David K. Nelson Jr., a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, displayed at a school exhibition his painting "Mirth & Girth" — which depicted the late Mayor Harold Washington in a bra, panties, and a garter belt.
Mayor Washington had passed away less than six months earlier, and several aldermen were incensed — calling the artwork disrespectful to the revered mayor.
"Mirth & Girth" had gone up that morning as part of the private exhibit of School of the Art Institute students' work. Late in the afternoon, several angry aldermen came to the exhibition and took the painting down.
For more than an hour, nine alders and five police officers huddled with the director of the school in an emotional debate on what should be done with the painting. The painting ended up being taken away by Chicago Police.
"The picture's in jail," said Ald. Ed Smith (28th).
Some School of the Art Institute students protested the removal. But the alders said the issue was the disrespect the painting showed toward the late mayor, and felt the painting was an affront to Black Chicagoans.
"It's absolutely disgraceful, and it will not be tolerated by any of us who loved Harold Washington. Get it straight. We're prepared to go down the line," said Ald. Anna Langford (16th).
School President Tony Jones tried to calm both sides — defending both student artist Nelson's First Amendment rights and the right of the public to react.
As recalled in a 2009 issue of the School of the Art Institute's F Newsmagazine, Nelson went on to sue the City of Chicago over his First Amendment rights and won a $95,000 settlement. But Art Institute Board Chairman Marshall Field V issued a formal apology for showing the painting, and agreed the school would consider demands to recruit more Black students and hire more Black administrators, F Newsmagazine recalled.
In the 2009 story, James Britt, head of multicultural affairs at the School of the Art Institute, said the controversy highlighted an ongoing need for people of different cultural backgrounds to communicate and have difficult conversations.
Nearly 37 years later at the hearing Tuesday, Ald. William Hall (6th) asked Hedspeth what the city's official procedure was when it came to displaying "Mirth & Girth."
Hedspeth said city procedure did not apply in that case, as the School of the Art Institute is not a city facility.
But Zhen Heinemann, director of visiting experience and public engagement for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, noted that there have been several more recent art installations mounted at the Cultural Center that have featured material some might find offensive. These have included the 2021-2022 exhibition "Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott," which Heinemann said involved "some lewd content — content that could be considered offensive in its stereotyping. That's also what that artist was intentionally doing in order to bring that to the public and into conversations."
Heinemann said the department does its best to "look at the show and then create the idea of how we can communicate to an audience that it might be sensitive."
Meanwhile, Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) addressed her own reaction to "Mirth & Girth" when she was a child.
"Imagine as a Black child, seeing the Black man who built the rainbow coalition to bring this city together being displayed in an art exhibit like this. This was hurtful as a child," Taylor said. "But I understood that this was art, and this is that person's artistic expression."
