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Within 24 hours, an additional four artists withdrew.
It may be that by the time you read this, the Whitney Biennial could be a third empty.
Walkouts and withdrawals have happened before, but a deserted show is beyond precedent.
Were through the looking glass.
History is being made.
Something that has been a long time coming has finally come.
Kanders and his product were toxic long before there was any outrage at the museum.
By the end of May, things were coming to a boil.
Soon, people from all over the art world were writing letters and signing petitions.
Then, last week,Artforumpublished a cogent online manifesto titled The Tear Gas Biennial.
A boycott would boost the force of every one of these statements.
Artists can and do bite the hand that feeds.
This saga is much bigger than Kanders or the Whitney.
Kanders is no isolated case; dirty money is in the woodwork of every American museum.
In fact, ironically, the Whitneys board is farlesscompromised than most big art institutions.
But this saga has been eye-opening.
I love art, artists, museums, and being in the art world.
Compromises notwithstanding, I know that all museum boards, employees, and audiences dont have the same politics.
No one group gets to dictate or determine guidelines and policies for everyone.
Indeed, that is exactly what the Whitney kept calling for.
But the die had been cast.
Local museums met with one another to begin to address the crisis.
It was said that these meetings would continue.
But the Whitney was nevertheless left to carry out this public conversation on its own in real time.
Which was an impossible task.
The next stage in my Kanders thoughts came in the biennial.
I was horrified by the 11-minute videoaboutKanders by Forensic Architecture that was included in the show.
I left the room thinking,This guy has to fucking resign.
Getting rid of him would at least stop this from beingjustabout him.
We could then begin the public conversation and begin to draw up institutional philanthropic regulations.
This is not about evolution.
It is about revolution.
This is big.Note that theArtforumtext and artists withdrawals appeared only days after Trumps white-nationalist chants of Send her back.
Now this biennial is changing the world again.
A Rubicon has been crossed.
2020 is going to be harder and worse than 2019.
In the country, the climate, everywhere, including the art world.
This is a biennial good or bad that people have fought for, for decades.
Finally, the show is majority women and artists of color.
I spent the last few months thinking, No!
For millennia, women and people of color have been told what to do.
We cant do this now.
Here, in the art world, no less.
Let the artists be in one show for once; stop dictating whattheirethics and actions and art should be.
Get out of their business.
Across the board, now, artists have taken the first steps.
More artists are likely to withdraw.
Else it will smite us.
