ePaper
Subscribe
Newsletters
Search
Profile
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Subscribe
ePaper
Newsletters
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Donald Trump
comment

'While I revile Trump as much as the next man, Nancy Spector was wrong to offer the Golden Toilet'

Georgina Adam on why Guggenheim's chief curator should rise above President and his "swampy" world

Georgina Adam
26 January 2018
Share
President Donald Trump was offered Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet instead of a Van Gogh painting Trump: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images. Toilet: Photo: Kristopher McKay

President Donald Trump was offered Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet instead of a Van Gogh painting Trump: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images. Toilet: Photo: Kristopher McKay

Nancy Spector, the chief curator of the Guggenheim museum in New York, has rebuffed a request from President Donald Trump to borrow Van Gogh’s Landscape with Snow (1888), for his and Melania’s private living quarters.

Instead, Spector offers America, the title of Maurizio Cattelan’s fully-functioning, solid gold toilet, which had been installed in the Guggenheim’s rest-rooms for almost a year, and was seen—and presumably used by—hundreds of thousands of people, according to Spector’s blog, which called it a “cipher for the excesses of affluence.”

The offer, which has only recently been revealed—the email dates from last September—leaves me uncomfortable. Of course it is terribly funny, but I feel that in making the offer Spector is descending to Trump’s puerile level—the equivalent of one of his insulting tweets.

Make no mistake, I am revolted by Trump, by his rolling back of so many gains made in the past decades, on the environment, on womens’ rights, on race relations, immigration and much more. He seems to me massively unfit for the function he now occupies.

But does Spector do any service to the liberal cause with her offer? Her suggestion will alienate exactly those who a museum should seek to engage with, and is a gift to those who already castigate the liberal, metropolitan elite as being sneering and out of touch with the ordinary person. 

In addition Spector is acting as the representative of a museum, whose role is—or should be—to elevate the public discourse and offer inspiration towards higher ideals rather than a playground brawl. It is her absolute right to resist, but just not in this way.

Donald TrumpSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
© The Art Newspaper