I am a museum person. I like art museums, history museums, natural history museums–the gamut. One of the perks of now living in DC is the plethora of museums. Of course, the current president is intentionally and perversely cherry picking their holdings to eliminate some Smithsonian content and”adjust” American history.
But museums not subject to presidential alteration can, and do, make the case for today’s threats to democracy. Clichés like “history repeats itself” and “life imitates art” and vice-versa become clichés because they are truthful. And two exhibits I saw recently testified to this truthfulness.
“BLACKLISTED” IN NEW YORK CITY
“Blacklisted: An American Story” was The New York Historical‘s version of “Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare,” an exhibit that originated at Jewish Museum Milwaukee. The Milwaukee version ran in 2018-19 and at other Jewish museums in Houston, Baltimore, and Los Angeles. The New York City adaptation appeared this year from June 13 to November 2.
One doesn’t have to be a historian or political analyst to figure out how certain abuses of the 1940s and 1950s relate to today’s daily news. Now it’s called “cancel culture.” For instance, the “cancellation” of such truths as the cruelness of slavery and America’s closed-door policies to persecuted European Jews. These were two publicized targets of current presidential curation. And Jimmy Kimmel!
The Blacklist, initially published by the House UnAmerican Affairs Committee (HUAC), named real and imagined members of the Communist Party. It motivated Hollywood entertainment moguls to tow the line by firing or boycotting performers, writers, directors, and crew members suspected of “Commie” ties. In actual Soviet and Nazi style, the government encouraged stool pigeons to inform on friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
One section New York Historical added to the exhibit focused on New York theatre, where artistic expression remained alive. Indeed, work in the theatre provided a source of artistic refuge and economic livelihood for some shut out of Hollywood.
The concurrent heyday of Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy brought forth anti-Communist rantings, probes, and indictments that reached into the lives of ordinary veterans, government workers, and other citizens. McCarthy finally tripped up when he went after the Army’s top brass. That over-reach led to a now famous admonition from Joseph Welch, a Boston lawyer representing the Army: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
Don’t we wish we would hear that today from Congress or the Supreme Court? Thankfully, McCarthy never became President of the United States.
A CHAMPION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ART
Ben Shawn, an artist whose paintings and drawings depicted social justice travesties and activism, represented the genre known as Social Realism. An exhibit of his works, “Ben Shawn, On Nonconformity,” at the Jewish Museum in New York City, reminded us of social conditions that lent themselves to injustice. Shawn, unabashedly known for his left-wing politics, experienced blacklisting by the CBS television network for designing graphics to advertise Edward R. Murrow’s investigative show, “See It Now.” These included the milestone episode that notably exposed and condemned McCarthy.
FAST FORWARD TO 2025
Although both museums surely made their exhibit decisions before Inauguration Day 2025, these displays couldn’t have been better timed. The bad news: today we face similar threats to the First Amendment, as well as previously unfathomable corruption and lawlessness. The slight ray of hope–sorry, it’s too soon to call it good news–is that America lived through the Blacklist/McCarthy eras and cast off most of its ravages. As I write this, a bipartisan duo of two senators announced plans to investigate the attacks on fishing boats. House members anonymously report widespread dissatisfaction and fear of defeat. And some states refuse to gerrymander mid-decade. It’s a start.
But, while the Blacklisted exhibit depicts an end to the worst abuses–chiefly the restored careers of several blacklisted artists–Ben Shawn’s Social Realism highlights conditions that persist. Among them: racial discrimination, housing slums, and workers denied union representation.
THE IMPACT OF JEWISH MUSEUM MILWAUKEE
That an exhibit originated by Jewish Museum Milwaukee (JMM) attracts the attention of an institution as established and revered as The New York Historical attests to the vision and impact of this much smaller and younger institution in the Midwest. Another JMM-originated exhibit, “Degenerate,” about Hitler’s ban on–a.k.a. cancellation of–significant modern artists and their art, recently opened at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Though I claim no substantive role in the creation of these and other JMM exhibits traveling to larger and more renown museums, I do admit to some personal pride about a place where I have volunteered as a board member and on exhibit committees.
“BLACKLISTED ” IS COMING TO DC
In March “Blacklisted” begins a run at Capital Jewish Museum, another up-and-coming institution located blocks from the White House. Ironic but appropriate for this city at this time.
“Blacklisted” timely message greets visitors at NY Historical.
New York theatre helped to salvage the careers of many Blacklist victims.
Joseph N. Welch made history with this statement.
Artist Ben Shawn represented Social Realism and strove toward social justice during the Blacklist era and the parallel, and longer lasting, Cold War.
Shawn’s art supported equality.
Leave a Reply