The Art World Reckons With the #MeToo Movement

Sexual harassment allegations against Chuck Close led to the cancellation of his recent exhibition.

Chuck Close attends the 2015 Museum of Modern Art Party In The Garden and special salute to David Rockefeller on his 100th Birthday at Museum of Modern Art on June 2, 2015 in New York City.  (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/WireImage)
Chuck Close attends the 2015 Museum of Modern Art Party In The Garden and special salute to David Rockefeller on his 100th Birthday at Museum of Modern Art on June 2, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/WireImage)

The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. has indefinitely postponed a Chuck Close exhibition amid sexual harassment allegations against the artists, raising questions about how the art world will respond to the ongoing cultural reckoning. A new article in the New York Times ponders how the Close decision will affect curatorial decisions in the future, and how it may change our perceptions of troubled and legendary artists past. In portrait exhibitions like Close’s works, it has long been convention to give context to the life and misdeeds of the person in the portrait. Now, museums must wrestle with whether the same process is necessary for the artists themselves.

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