On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh picked up where some of us left off in wondering why Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik would trash Norman Rockwell and suggest he would censor his exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery because he pandered to white middle-class Americans:
This little excerpt here captures the spirit of it. "If every piece of art that offended some person or some group was removed from a museum, our museums might start looking empty - or would contain nothing more than pabulum. ... Norman Rockwell would get the boot, too, if I believed in pulling everything that I'm offended by: I can't stand the view of America that he presents, which I feel insults a huge number of us non-mainstream folks." So here's a guy ripping Norman Rockwell. If he had his druthers there wouldn't be any Norman Rockwell art anywhere, much less in a museum.
But Mr. Gopnik says, "But I didn't call for the Smithsonian American Art Museum to pull the Rockwell show that runs through Jan. 2, just down the hall from 'Hide/Seek.' Rockwell and his admirers got to have their say, and his detractors, including me, got to rant about how much they hated his art." Now, what is there to hate about Norman Rockwell? Very simply answered question: pro-America. Classic Americana. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate the flag. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate biscuits and gravy. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate breakfast. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate farms. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate grandmother. If you hate Norman Rockwell, you hate the family. What in the world is there to hate about Norman Rockwell? But Mr. Gopnik expresses his hate for Norman Rockwell as a justification for his support of this ant video on gay love.
(imitating Gopnik) "Hey, look, I'm open-minded. You know, I hate Rockwell, but I don't try to get him banned. You people that hate ants crawling all over Jesus, you need to have a little more tolerance," is what he's saying here.
And he added:
By the way, a question for Blake Gopnik. Mr. Gopnik, if the Smithsonian approved a video, or even worse, a live demonstration of a bunch of cockroaches or ants or pick your insect, crawling all over Mohammed or Allah, would an artist support that? Would the Smithsonian ever put it up? Mr. Gopnik, I'm sure you know some artists out there. Go to an artist say, "Look, let's deal with it this way. Okay, they pull our exhibit here with the ants calling all over Jesus, fine, let's redo it and replace Jesus with Allah, or Mohammed, and let's submit that to the Smithsonian and see what they say." And I'll bet that you, Mr. Gopnik, couldn't even find an artist to do it.
