Tate Etc – the Tate Modern magazine – has had to dump sixteen pages of editorial on Gilbert & George after the double-act made known their objections to some or all of the commissioned articles – threatening even to refuse picture rights if the project went ahead as conceived by editor Simon Grant.
All 16 pages - to be published in the next issue to coincide with Tate Modern's G&G show in February - were replaced by copy approved by the artists. One of the writers whose copy hit the shredder, Duncan Fallowell, thunders to Grant in a letter: “Artists have no more right to censor writing than writers do art. It is especially disgraceful in connection with an institution such as Tate Modern which is supposed to be a temple of free expression.”
He adds: "So instead of participating in a major cultural event, your magazine has been reduced to a brochure for a brand. It's so cheap and second-rate."
In his regular The First Post column Fallowell wonders rightly aloud: “Why do freedom fighters turn into Stalin?”
3 comments:
Well, this is almost what you'd expect. It'd be great to think of people boycotting the show, but disappointingly unlikely.
And, like, I have to say I've never exactly seen G&G as "those magnificent crusaders for freedom" - did I miss something?
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