Zeroing In on a Comparison of the ‘90s Art Scene and the Nazi Era

Re “The Ties That Bind,” Christopher Knight’s March 10 commentary: Knight seeks to tie President Bush, Sen. Jesse Helms and the majority of Americans to the Nazis with a sophistry unworthy of Herr Goebbels himself.

After a tip of the rhetorical hat to the “risky business” of analogies, he quickly alleges “undeniable parallels” between Bush and Hitler and equates an imagined remake of a “populist version” of Bush with “the Fuhrer suppressing the avant-garde in similar (populist) ways and for similar (populist) reasons.”

And who are the (unidentified) “frankly evil certain politicians” to which Knight refers? Only Bush, Helms and a few other conservatives are named. By such intellectual dishonesty, one could say all pro-abortionists are neo-Nazis because Hitler too favored federally funded abortions.

Helms objected to the product of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano because (a) it was disgusting garbage, not art, and (b) our taxes were used for purposes not legitimately within the federal government’s purview--the Constitution is specific on the purpose and powers of the central government and “art” collecting ain’t one of ‘em.

I (a card-carrying patron of the arts, as defined by LACMA) and most other Americans do not think that an artist turned liberal NEA bureaucrat is likely to be any better an art curator than Hitler, an artist turned (national) socialist government bureaucrat.

While Serrano (who produced the photograph “Piss Christ) may be a master of his medium, urine--and his own chosen medium certainly must be as appropriate to his artistic vision as marble was to Michelangelo--to say that the “Moral Majority” is neo-Nazi because we resent paying someone to rub our faces with it is to confuse flatulence with afflatus. Helms is art critic enough to know that a lit match held up to the former is sufficient to reveal its true composition.

Being an artist means far more than dressing one’s self in black clothes, ponytail and affected attitude; the Muses will never be captured in a specimen cup.

JACK R. BUCHMILLER

Manhattan Beach