Seven artists have asked New York City's Whitney Museum to remove their work from its biennial showcase of American art over a museum board member's ties to the sale of law enforcement supplies including tear gas.
The artists are protesting Warren Kanders' role as vice chairman of the Whitney's board. Kanders is the owner of the Safariland Group, which sells body armor for police officers as well as tear gas. Critics of Safariland say the tear gas has been used against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"The Museum's inertia has turned the screw, and we refuse further complicity with Kanders and his technologies of violence," four of the artists said in a letter the showcase's curators published in Artforum on Friday.
Three additional artists said Saturday that they were withdrawing their work in solidarity. Spinello Projects, a gallery that represents two of the artists, said on Facebook that Safariland "manufactures tear gas and other weapons of repression."
Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, said in an emailed statement that the Whitney "respects the opinions of all the artists it exhibits and stands by their right to express themselves freely."
"While the Whitney is saddened by this decision, we will of course comply with the artists' request," he added.
An email seeking comment was also sent to Safariland on Saturday.
Removing the artwork would leave large empty spaces in the exhibit, which runs through Sept. 22. One of the works, Nicole Eisenman's "Procession," takes up most of the museum's sixth-floor terrace.
Artists and the Whitney's own staff members have been speaking out against Kanders' presence on the board since November, when more than 100 staff signed a letter calling for his resignation.
Kanders defended Safariland in his own letter addressed to "the Whitney community."
"Safariland's role as a manufacturer is to ensure the products work, as expected, when needed," Kanders said, according to ARTnews . "Safariland's role is not to determine when and how they are employed. "
The Biennial, a survey of new American art that began as an annual show in 1932, typically featured politically charged art and has often sparked controversy.
The 2017 Biennial saw sustained protests over "Open Casket," a painting depicting the corpse of Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. Protesters said it was exploitative for white artist Dana Schutz to use Till's image in her work. The painting was not removed from the exhibit.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
