[MSN] Betty Tompkins: SoHo Artist Is Censored in France and Japan]

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The Artist Betty Tompkins
by Charles Vincent Sabba Jr.
7 Dec 2006

The artist Betty Tompkins moved to SoHo, New York in 1969. Betty began a
series of black and white air brush paintings called Joined Forms, which
were cropped paintings of heterosexual intercourse. The artist states that
in these paintings, created during this beginning era of feminism, she was
deliberately appropriating the male gaze. She showed these works in
various galleries in SoHo, including LoGuidice Gallery and Warren Benedek.
In 1973, Betty was invited to exhibit in Guy Loudmer's in Paris. This led
to a ludicrous censorship by French Customs officials and a year of legal
wrangling on the artist's part to repatriate the art works.

Today Betty can smile on the 1973 event because her work has at last
received the respect it deserves. Betty is represented by the Mitchell
Algus Gallery in New York (she describes the owner of this gallery as the
nicest most supportive of human beings), and has exhibited her work at the
Lyon Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Galerie
Rodolphe Jansen in Brussels, Galerie Sho in Tokyo, and Galerie Caratsch in
Zurich who represents her work there, to name a few.

In this friendly interview, Betty, one of my all time favorite New York
artists, discusses with me some of the most important issues facing the
art world today, such as museum ethics in antiquities, censorship, and
freedom of expression in an ever increasing ultra-conservative atmosphere.

Charles Sabba- I believe you have a painting in the permanent collection
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Is the Met very supportive of
contemporary artists?

BT- I don't have a painting in the permanent collection of the Met. No
public institution so far in the USA owns a piece of mine. Centre Pompidou
in Paris owns "Joined Forms #1" which they showed last year in a recent
acquisition show. As for the Met, as far as I know, they have an on-going
program of purchasing and accepting donations of contemporary art so the
support of contemporary art is built into the purchase program. Just not
mine. So far. It is an interesting question Charlie. I really don't see
institutions going for my work. It may very possibly have to do with its
directness.I don't dance around the issues. I go straight into them and I
don't give them much "art" to hide behind. I really do demand a lot from
my audience. Also so far, no one has shown my work without a parental
advisory sign on the door. Maybe Zurich. I will have to check.

CS- As you know, a lot of public awareness has been raised regarding
American museums and their questionable buying policies of antiquities.
The Met has agreed to repatriate the Morgantina Silver and the Euphronious
Krater, among other items. I know that New York artists love the Met and
are proud of it. We all frequent the many amazing art exhibitions and no
one in the art world can deny that access to the museum's collections is a
great asset to an artist's work. That being said, artists are usually the
most idealistic about art and are very conscientious about social
injustices. In the months following the commencement of the Marion True
trial and the negotiations between the Italian government and the Met, we
have heard plenty about this issue from lawyers, law enforcement
officials, curators, dealers, and art experts. In my opinion, what really
counts is what the artists are saying. Do you have any thoughts you would
like to share?

BT- This is a complicated question Charlie, because it equates the making
of art with moral high standards. The two don't actually follow as the
night and day. It would be nice if they did, but ethics is not a required
course in art school. Cynically speaking Is there a museum in the world
with an antiquity collection that does not have pieces that were stolen or
illegally removed from the native country? I mean over hundreds of years,
not just recently. The Elgin Marbles for example. For myself, I think it
is an abhorrent practice of course and it is great that Italy is finally
stepping up to the plate- just that it is awfully late to be doing it and
as a visitor to the Met, and a lot of other museums, if all illegally
gotten gains were repatriated, learning about them by seeing them in the
flesh, so to speak, is going to get very difficult.

CS- Speaking of repatriation, you know first hand what it is like to fight
to get your artworks repatriated. In 1973, French customs officials
confiscated two of your paintings. Give us a description of the French
event and the confiscation of your art works.

BT- In 1973, I was invited to be in a show at Guy Loudmer's in Paris...

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 To read this article in its entirety, in which Betty Tompkins discusses
her fight against censorship in France and Japan, as well as her fortunate
encounters with Chuck Close, Jerry Saltz, Holland Cotter, and Mitchell
Algus, view 8 Dec 2006 Roll Call entry at: 
www.YourBrushWithTheLaw.com/roll.htm . ((Warning to users of government
computers: Betty's beautiful artworks cropped paintings and drawings of
hetersexual intercourse. Many images are included with this story on our
New Contemporary Art Page. Some workspace computer policies may not permit
the veiwing of this material from their machines))