{"id":4629,"date":"2023-06-21T15:08:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T22:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629"},"modified":"2023-06-21T15:12:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T22:12:03","slug":"museums-and-willful-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629","title":{"rendered":"Museums and willful ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">When Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel&nbsp;<em>Doctor Zhivago<\/em>, the Soviet press exploded with outrage. The year was 1958, and although Stalin was dead, he had instilled a lingering fear, and despite the liberalizations of his successor, Khruschev, critical portrayals of life in the&nbsp;ussr&nbsp;were still commonly demonized as enemy propaganda. The leading Russian cultural newspaper&nbsp;<em>Literaturnaya Gazeta<\/em>&nbsp;featured an entire spread headed \u201cAnger and Infuriation\u201d with a selection of searing, over-the-top letters savaging the novel and its author. One of the most fervent accusers was Anatoly Safronov, the erstwhile secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers and a laureate of the Stalin Prize. In a rambling, semi-literate statement, the bureaucrat-writer denounced Pasternak, proudly declaring that although he had not read the offending novel, he roundly condemned it. An adaptation of his words, \u201cI did not read it, but I rebuke it,\u201d became a late-Soviet underground byword for the absurdity of uninformed criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was reminded of Safronov\u2019s inadvertent&nbsp;<em>bon mot<\/em>&nbsp;twice last week: first, as I read the Brooklyn Museum\u2019s announcement of their latest exhibition \u201cIt\u2019s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby,\u201d and then again as I perused&nbsp;moma\u2019s \u201cpride-month\u201d-themed Instagram posts.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/blogs\/dispatch\/the-art-of-ignorance-13340#footnote-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a><\/sup>&nbsp;The Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby co-curated the Brooklyn Museum show, billed as \u201cpart of a global presentation . . . marking the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso\u2019s death,\u201d together with Sackler Senior Curator Catherine Morris and Senior Curator Lisa Small. In the opening quote of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brooklynmuseum.org\/exhibitions\/its_pablo_matic_picasso_according_to_hannah_gadsby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exhibition description<\/a>, Gadsby channeled Safronov\u2019s pigheaded message of proud ignorance: \u201cPicasso said, \u2018You can have all the perspectives at once!\u2019 What a hero. But tell me, are any of those perspectives a woman\u2019s [<em>sic<\/em>]? Well, then I\u2019m not interested.\u201d To make up for the lack of a \u201cwoman\u2019s\u201d perspective in Picasso\u2019s art, Gadsby&nbsp;<em>et al.<\/em>&nbsp;proceed to hitch the \u201cwoman artist\u201d wagon to Picasso\u2019s power engine. Nevermind that Picasso\u2019s pronouns would have been \u201che\/him,\u201d so that a \u201cwoman\u2019s\u201d perspective would not have been his thing in the first place. Logic is just another patriarchal atavism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To read <a href=\"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/blogs\/dispatch\/the-art-of-ignorance-13340\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the article<\/a>, click on the image below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/blogs\/dispatch\/the-art-of-ignorance-13340\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"406\" src=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png 400w, https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-768x779.png 768w, https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM.png 1138w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel&nbsp;Doctor Zhivago, the Soviet press exploded with outrage. The year was 1958, and although Stalin was dead, he had instilled a lingering fear, and despite the liberalizations of his successor, Khruschev, critical portrayals of life in the&nbsp;ussr&nbsp;were still commonly demonized as enemy propaganda. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1136,1137,1],"tags":[225,1129,1133,1134,1132,1135,409,1130,1131,975],"class_list":["post-4629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideology","category-museums-art-history","category-uncategorized","tag-art-history","tag-brooklyn-museum-of-art","tag-diego-rivera","tag-ellsworth-kelly","tag-frida-kahlo","tag-instagram","tag-moma-2","tag-pablo-picasso","tag-pablo-matic","tag-propaganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel&nbsp;Doctor Zhivago, the Soviet press exploded with outrage. The year was 1958, and although Stalin was dead, he had instilled a lingering fear, and despite the liberalizations of his successor, Khruschev, critical portrayals of life in the&nbsp;ussr&nbsp;were still commonly demonized as enemy propaganda. [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jfriedman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423\"},\"headline\":\"Museums and willful ignorance\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/06\\\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Art History\",\"Brooklyn Museum of Art\",\"Diego Rivera\",\"Ellsworth Kelly\",\"Frida Kahlo\",\"Instagram\",\"MOMA\",\"Pablo Picasso\",\"Pablo-matic\",\"propaganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ideology\",\"Museums\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629\",\"name\":\"Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/06\\\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4629#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/06\\\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/06\\\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM.png\",\"width\":1138,\"height\":1154},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"Julia Friedman\",\"description\":\"Art History and Contemporary Art\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423\",\"name\":\"jfriedman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"jfriedman\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman","og_description":"When Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel&nbsp;Doctor Zhivago, the Soviet press exploded with outrage. The year was 1958, and although Stalin was dead, he had instilled a lingering fear, and despite the liberalizations of his successor, Khruschev, critical portrayals of life in the&nbsp;ussr&nbsp;were still commonly demonized as enemy propaganda. [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629","og_site_name":"Julia Friedman","article_published_time":"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"jfriedman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jfriedman","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629"},"author":{"name":"jfriedman","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423"},"headline":"Museums and willful ignorance","datePublished":"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629"},"wordCount":377,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png","keywords":["Art History","Brooklyn Museum of Art","Diego Rivera","Ellsworth Kelly","Frida Kahlo","Instagram","MOMA","Pablo Picasso","Pablo-matic","propaganda"],"articleSection":["Ideology","Museums"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629","url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629","name":"Museums and willful ignorance - Julia Friedman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM-400x406.png","datePublished":"2023-06-21T22:08:26+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-21T22:12:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4629#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-21-at-2.58.58-PM.png","width":1138,"height":1154},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/","name":"Julia Friedman","description":"Art History and Contemporary Art","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423","name":"jfriedman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0cf77d93238e5347982ad42865cd8df61e2924b6583223548a94b3e12a098d78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"jfriedman"},"url":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4632,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4629\/revisions\/4632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}