来源：自由亚洲电台
gH,^X Ze ^{DXin 1O` 自由亚洲电台记者萧融洛杉矶报导/美国洛杉矶阿罕布拉市(City of Alhambra)为庆祝中国新年,首次举办「金猪迎春画展」.其中一幅将毛泽东和美国开国总统华盛顿并列的画作,经当地民众抗议,市政府紧急撤下这幅画之后,又引起参展画家不满.参加本次画展的四位中国画家坚持「艺术和政治不该混为一谈」,愤而集体退出画展.
dli?/U@hO 以美国波普艺术(Pop Art)风格呈现的毛泽东画像,意外结束了洛杉矶阿罕布拉市(City of Alhambra)首次举行的中国新年画展.
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VJ+X|Z 画展主办人陈惠萍:我觉得撤走那幅画完全违反言论自由精神,这是个人观点,美国是言论自由国家.对我来说,这些人去吵闹(要求市府撤画),我觉得完全没有道理.
VWj]X7v Ty}'A(U 画展主办人陈惠萍,对少数中外人士向市府反应「不应展示和共产党有关的图像」,而市府在没有通知画家或主办方的情况下,就决定撤下毛泽东和美国开国总统华盛顿并列为题的画作,感到气愤和无奈.
VA&_dU]* D2# 3fM6 记者:从\x{59b3}的视角来看,这幅画有问题吗?
,j:`yB] 4, %u, H2 * 画展主办人陈惠萍:当然没有问题,毛泽东已经死了三十年,这是一项艺术展览, (要求撤画)这只是非常少数人意见, 1949年毛泽东创立中华人民共和国也是事实,其它的,我就没必要评论了.对我来说,这只是一幅画,就好像到中国大陆,可以看到烟灰缸、打火机上有毛泽东像,两者是一样意思,喜欢就买,不喜欢就不买.
Ovq-rI{ ?<k s^2 D 引起争议的作品,由中国画家马建文以颜料沾贴丝绢的方式创作,整幅画分有四个方块,将取材自人民币和美金的毛泽东与华盛顿,画在象征年年有余的小猪扑满上.
fk<0~ tE 9G[!"eZ} 马建文愤而退出画展后,其它三位参展的中国画家也同步跟进,并立即撤离所有作品.马建文接受本台访问响应得相当低调,只透露,他将择期举行新闻发布会,届时再细说详情.
U6t>UE6k rUc2'Ct 画家马建文:那个…这样…我来通知您…现在有人叫我…(通话中断)
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(~v 一幅毛泽东画像,挑起参观者反毛情绪,阿罕布拉市华裔市长、来自北京的沈时康,在无法收回成命的前提下,也表示他尊重言论与创作自由的立场.
b z[U< Eh^c4x 市长沈时康:艺术应该归艺术,那幅画没有任何影涉,或是政治意涵在里面,它只是艺术表现。
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\xlelsmB* Angry artists remove works XT9]+b8(M 7v]>ID By Patricia Jiayi Ho Staff Writer
%c<e`P; h8&VaJ City staff had earlier removed one of Ma's works, depicting Communist leader Mao Zedong next to George Washington. ALHAMBRA - The art has been taken down, but the bare walls in the Alhambra City Hall lobby have something to say.
\uQ yp*P1s )[C]1N=tK Artists featured in a Chinese New Year exhibit took down all 30 of their silk-screen prints Tuesday evening after city staff removed a piece pairing Mao Zedong and George Washington that some viewers found offensive.
b (Zh$ 86 `a D~\O "They don't respect art and they don't respect artists," said Jeffrey Ma, whose artwork depicting the former Chinese Communist leader next to America's first president was taken down last Thursday.
&xo_93 $nUhM|It Ma and the three other artists in the exhibit decided to take everything down after asking the city to put the piece back up, but failing to receive any commitment it would do so. The show was scheduled to run through February.
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&q7HK\ @SjISZw _ "If this place is not interested in us, we are not interested in this place," said John Kong, another artist.
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The group also retrieved the Mao piece, which was being kept in the City Clerk's office.
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/` $M5iU@A "I understand people can have strong personal reactions to certain things," Kong said. "It's not wrong to express what he thinks when he sees this art. The wrong thing is that City Hall took the piece down."
?1T)cd* F0t-b %w, First Amendment experts agree.
InBnU`(r sG7G$G*ta! Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, described it as "innocent, thoughtless censorship, but censorship nonetheless."
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{8n ]$oo1ssZ1 When there is a complaint, "the appropriate response is not to the suppress the original speech, but rather to encourage more expression so that the public is exposed to all these points of view," Scheer said.
Ngi] I#V z 3q:U0&F The artists' grievances may have some basis in First Amendment freedom of speech laws. Because a particular piece was singled out based on a complaint, it appears that the city's actions were based on subject matter and viewpoint, said Peter Eliasberg, a Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights at ACLU of Southern California.
H*51GxK A=JPmsj. "What the city has done raises very serious First Amendment concerns," he said. "They have a tough row to hoe to argue that this was legal what they did."
B5{ wSr R}_B\# Q It is not clear who made the decision to take the Mao piece down.
(HbA?Aja /'' |bIPa City Clerk Frances Moore, who coordinates community art exhibits in the lobby the rest of the year, said staff received a complaint and removed the print "at the direction" of organizer Pinki Chen.
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E[\1 -+?ZJ^A "She wanted it down. They didn't want controversy," Moore said. "The city has nothing to do with \. We just allow the committee who is putting it on to use our lobby."
& Xm !i(i #Z#rOh However, Chen said city staff simply notified her as a courtesy.
io%WV %1_ }$i Kz*nx| "Why would I do that?" she said. "They called me and asked me if it was okay. I told them, `It's your decision'... I would never say we should take it down because of a couple of people."
$9YAq/#Q f^Sl(^f Calls to the city manager's office were referred Wednesday to Deputy City Manager Tara Schultz. Schultz did not return calls for comment.
lHerEv<ja 1Bp?HyCR Organizers intended the exhibit to be a benign tribute to the Year of the Boar and, for two weeks, no one objected. However, the Mao print and two others featuring the Red Army with pig heads have incensed some who say the artwork is an act of "moral perversion" that makes light of others' tragedies.
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2;6!_ "It is not acceptable to use other people's pain and suffering and death to celebrate the Chinese New Year," said Los Angeles resident Kai Chen, 53. "Being a free man is not easy. When you do something, you have tremendous responsibilities."
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i Alhambra resident Henry Zhang, 41, said Mao is China's equivalent of Adolf Hitler and his portrait should not be displayed in public venues.
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9 "He took away other people's freedom," Zhang said.
4 z KmoYt GV R/p However, the artists argue that critics' urge to ban or censor is reminiscent of Mao's policies.
tAF#kBa\y_ 6l]jm j)/ "This comes from the same concept as Mao's concept," Kong said. "If you are doing something that I am not in favor of, you are wrong."
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23 %;/?DQU Kong said the artwork was not intended to have political tones. Made in a pop culture style to memorialize Andy Warhol on the 20th anniversary of his death, artists incorporated well-known images into their prints. Warhol also made prints of Mao.
o5 LyBUJ Nk?eVJ) Mao was juxtaposed with Washington because both are found on currency bills, Ma said. In the print, their faces are imposed over piggy banks to reference savings and wishes of good fortune that are associated with Chinese New Year.
sB` .G e}>3<Dh "The irony is that \ triggered other reactions which resulted only in greater attention being paid to the image," Scheer said.
Vl'Gi44)3" % ])U ( The Pasadena Star-News was one of the sponsors of the exhibit.
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c:/ Despite his death in 1976, Mao remains a controversial figure. While historians attribute hundreds of thousands of deaths, possibly millions, to his hand, a giant portrait of Mao hangs over Tiananmen gate in Beijing.
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m Zh !-rG1VI_S* /M!b3bmA http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_5278693
