City Hall’s Virgin Ears
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But not too hard for an unidentified City Hall staffer, who took down the portrait the day after the exhibit went on display and then informed city public health officials. These officials, in turn, told Jim Pickett, a “Faces of AIDS” coordinator and the principal writer of its accompanying book. Pickett says the project was meant to give voice to a variety of experiences but AIDS activists have to pick their battles. “We understand that certain things are hot buttons,” says Pickett. “We’ve had incredible support from the city and the state, and to take something down that says ‘fuck’ is no big deal. It was a wise thing to do–someone nipped it in the bud before there was any big trouble.”
Jennifer Hoyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, says there’s no statute prohibiting the display of what might be deemed offensive language in public buildings. But if an offending work is part of a city-sponsored exhibit, Hoyle says, “We reserve the right to do with it whatever we want at any time.”
Since 1993, River North gallery owner Michael Lyons Wier has shown paintings by artists whom he considers “obsessed” with a “narrative, figural realism.” Since 1991, dealer Aron Packer has built his reputation showing work by folk and outsider artists, with a bit of what he calls “good painting” on the side. So it didn’t seem like much of a stretch when the two joined forces last fall in the rechristened Lyonswier Packer Gallery at 300 W. Superior. “Our type of stuff is 80 percent blurred over,” says Wier. “It’s similar enough to share an identity, but dissimilar enough to bring something to the partnership.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Nathan Mandell.
