Selections from Kramer's superb "Letter from Europe" series in the
New Yorker - challenging, informative models of intellectual
journalism for the general reader - have been collected in several
books (Europeans, 1988, etc.). This single-article reprint launches
Public Planet Books, a series edited by Kramer, Dilip Gaonkar
(Rhetoric/Univ. of Illinois), and Michael Warner (English/Rutgers)
that aims to "combine reportage and critical reflection on
unfolding issues and events." This short volume is Kramer's account
of the furor provoked by white artist John Ahearn's sculptures of
residents of the South Bronx - one of New York City's urban ruins.
Kramer's article (originally published in the New Yorker), which
prompted charges of racism and stereotyping, touches on the
hyper-charged subjects of multiculturalism and political
correctness. The author addresses these questions with her
customary sensitivity to nuance and the human dimensions of social
issues. Rutgers University dean Catharine R. Stimpson (Where the
Meanings Are: Feminism and Cultural Spaces, not reviewed) provides
an introduction that, while not as elegantly written as Kramer's
text, usefully puts the debate into historical context. (Kirkus
Reviews)
"Whose Art Is It?" is the story of sculptor John Ahearn, a white
artist in a black and Hispanic neighborhood of the South Bronx, and
of the people he cast for a series of public sculptures
commissioned for an intersection outside a police station. Jane
Kramer, telling this story, raises one of the most urgent questions
of our time: How do we live in a society we share with people who
are, often by their own definitions, "different?" Ahearn's subjects
were "not the best of the neighborhood." They were a junkie, a
hustler, and a street kid. Their images sparked a controversy
throughout the community--and New York itself--over issues of white
representations of people of color and the appropriateness of
particular images as civic art. The sculptures, cast in bronze and
painted, were up for only five days before Ahearn removed them.
This compelling narrative raises questions about community and
public art policies, about stereotypes and multiculturalism. With
wit, drama, sympathy, and circumspection, Kramer draws the reader
into the multicultural debate, challenging our assumptions about
art, image, and their relation to community. Her portrait of the
South Bronx takes the argument to its grass roots--provocative,
surprising in its contradictions and complexities and not at all
easy to resolve.
Accompanied by an introduction by Catharine R. Stimpson exploring
the issues of artistic freedom, "political correctness," and
multiculturalism, "Whose Art Is It?" is a lively and accessible
introduction to the ongoing debate on representation and private
expression in the public sphere.
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