For Immediate Release (5/4/98):
in SoHo this Friday 5/8/98 Leica Gallery #670 Broadway. Protest begins 11A.M. Contact # (718) 369-2111
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
Who ordered hundreds of artists falsely arrested; denied them a trial; had thousands of works of original fine art destroyed; spent years trying to eliminate constitutional protection for visual art as a form of speech; and then tried to pass himself off as an artist? Was it Adolph Hitler? Josef Stalin? Chairman Mao? Sadaam Hussein? Fidel Castro? No...It's Rudy "Police State" Giuliani.
Starting on May 8th, 1998 Mayor Giuliani is showing his latest photos at The Leica Gallery [212 777-3051] a renowned SoHo exhibition space located at 670 Broadway. The semi-secret opening is closed to the public and only select members of the media will be admitted. According to gallery photographers whose works were abruptly removed from the show, Giuliani demanded that besides his own "masterpieces", the works of all other living photographers' must be excluded. The Mayor snaps his Kodak moments after posing for photo opportunities at homicides, accidents, fires, rapes, building collapses, watermain explosions, arrests and other tragedies. Unlike professional photographers who are often harassed while trying to document these scenes despite freedom of the press, Mayor Giuliani enjoys unabridged First Amendment freedom, as befits the man the N.Y.P.D. has affectionately nicknamed, "The Gestapo Chief".
Critics of the Mayor believe the show's real purpose is to counter bad press he's received by ordering daily arrests of artist/protesters in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the past two months [see NY Times Metro pg 1 3/22/98 "War of the Paintbrushes".] Further attempting to raise his artistic profile the Mayor just pledged $65 million of the taxpayer's money to expand the Museum of Modern Art, a private institution whose board of directors are some of the City's wealthiest real estate developers, bankers and billionaires including David Rockefeller, Jerry Speyer, Ronald Lauder and Donald Marron, the chairman of Paine Webber. MOMA, one of the world's most successful art museums, allegedly earns more than $250 million each year in their gift shop alone. Giuliani has denied that this is a peculiar way to spend tax dollars when the City's schools are in a state of immanent physical collapse. According to a 4/24/98 N.Y. Times article, while standing in front of a series of Warhol prints of Marilyn Monroe, Giuliani cited cultural benefits to schoolchildren as justification for the $65 million grant to the private art museum. "Someone could say, 'Why not spend this on schools?", the Mayor said. "For some young people, this could be even more important than school."
Since Giuliani took office he has waged an unrelenting campaign on behalf of real estate developers and corporate interests to eliminate both the livelihoods and free speech rights of the City's street artists. In an appeal brief [Giuliani v. Lederman et al and Giuliani v Bery et al 98-9089] that he filed on 2/24/97 Mayor Giuliani asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny First Amendment protection to visual art. The Mayor's brief claimed, "An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus minimal." In a 2/24/97 interview on WNYC's syndicated business news show, "Marketplace", Elizabeth Freedman, an attorney representing the Corporation Counsel's office, confirmed the City's anti-art position. "Visual art...does not express ideas and as such is not entitled to First Amendment protection." An amicus brief supporting the Mayor's position signed by The Fifth Avenue Association, the Alliance for Downtown New York, the Grand Central Partnership, the Thirty Fourth Street Partnership, the Madison Avenue B.I.D. and the SoHo Alliance warned of, "the dangers of allowing visual art full First Amendment protection". On 6/3/97 the Court denied the Mayor's appeal.
The Giuliani appeal was filed in response to a 10/16/96 2nd circuit Federal Appeals Court ruling in favor of the City's street artists which affirmed that, "Paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures...always express ideas and as such are entitled to full First Amendment protection...the City's requirement that appellants be licensed in order to sell their artwork in public spaces constitutes an unconstitutional infringement of their First Amendment rights." This ruling guaranteeing artists full First Amendment protection is now the law in New York City. Unfortunately for the City's 400 or so street artists, arrests, confiscations and the misuse of police resources to harass artists continues as if the case never existed.
Among the demonstrators at the Mayor's art opening will be A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) President, Robert Lederman who has been arrested 31 times while protesting against Mayor Giuliani. Lederman and fellow artist/activists Wei Zhang, Knut Masco and Jack Nesbitt recently filed a $200 million dollar lawsuit against Giuliani and Parks Commissioner Henry Stern for violations of their Constitutional rights, false arrest, illegal confiscation of their art and an attempt to institute a new license/permit system for street artists in the City's parks. The artists in this suit are represented by Andrew Miltenberg (212) 481-4242. Please join New York City's street artists in welcoming the Mayor at his art show.
Also see: N.Y. Times Editorial 4/28/98, "Restoring the City Arts Budget"; N.Y. Times 4/24/98, "MOMA to Get $65 Million for Expansion"; NY Times 3/2/98 B1; Newsday 3/2/98 A7; Village Voice 2/24/98 pg 57; Newsday 2/26/98 A8; NY Times 6/3/97 B2; NY Times editorial 3/4/98; Newsday 3/16/98 pg 4. NY TIMES Metro pg 1 3/22/98 "War of the Paintbrushes"; Time Out 4/16-23/98 pg. 39 "Brush With Danger"; N.Y. Times Metro 4/18/98 "Judge Upholds Limit on Artists Selling Pictures Near Museum"; Newsday 4/20/98 cover story "Under Giuliani City Has Repeatedly Stifled Dissent".
For more information contact Robert Lederman (718) 369-2111; E-Mail:<ARTISTpres@aol.com>.
To read the 2nd circuit decision go to: <http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html>.
Other phone numbers: Mayor's Press Office 788-2958; Parks Comm. Henry Stern 360-1305; Thomas Rozinski, legal counsel Parks 360-1314; William Leurs, Pres. Met Museum 570-3900; Museum Press office 570-3951