Artist Doug Argue says Weisman Art Museum's decision not to sell his monogram is 'book banning'. He reflects on the challenges museums face in an increasingly politicised environment with Sheila Regan.
Artist Doug Argue is calling the Weisman Art Museum’s (WAM) refusal to sell a monograph on his art in its bookstore during his recent survey exhibition there a form of “book banning”.
The exhibition, held last summer at the University of Minnesota museum, featured work Argue made since the early 1980s. Argue’s work has been shown at One World Trade Center and the Venice Biennale. He’s best known in Minnesota for his giant painting of a factory chicken coop, on view for many years at WAM.
One work originally selected by guest curator Elizabeth Armstrong for the show, Doug Argue: Letters to the Future (17 June-10 September 2023), depicting a boy with an electrical cord around his neck, was “censored”, according to Argue. “They said if somebody saw it they might commit suicide,” he said at a lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in January. Argue drew inspiration from Rembrandt’s Lucretia (1666) and his brother’s death in a car accident for the work...Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.
Artist Doug Argue is calling the Weisman Art Museum’s (WAM) refusal to sell a monograph on his art in its bookstore during his recent survey exhibition there a form of “book banning”.
The exhibition, held last summer at the University of Minnesota museum, featured work Argue made since the early 1980s. Argue’s work has been shown at One World Trade Center and the Venice Biennale. He’s best known in Minnesota for his giant painting of a factory chicken coop, on view for many years at WAM.
One work originally selected by guest curator Elizabeth Armstrong for the show, Doug Argue: Letters to the Future (17 June-10 September 2023), depicting a boy with an electrical cord around his neck, was “censored”, according to Argue. “They said if somebody saw it they might commit suicide,” he said at a lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in January. Argue drew inspiration from Rembrandt’s Lucretia (1666) and his brother’s death in a car accident for the work...Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.