Art show featuring nudity, decapitation causes stir

HARLINGEN - A bit of classical nudity has the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum keeping the door closed on its latest exhibit, along with a posted warning to all who enter.

The sign on the door of Rigoberto Gonzalez's exhibit "Barocco en la Frontera" (Baroque on the Border) reads, in both English and Spanish: "Please be advised that this exhibit contains violent themes and images as well as full frontal nudity and may not be suitable for all ages."

Five paintings depict the violent nature of illegal drug trafficking. Four of those depict decapitated heads.

The artist, who teaches at Harlingen High School South and the University of Texas-Pan American, said he believes it was only the intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union that stopped city officials from removing some of the paintings from the exhibit.

"I'm an artist," Gonzalez said. "I don't paint these things to put them away in the closet. I want people to see them."

Assistant City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez confirmed that the city had been contacted by the ACLU.

"It's not unusual for agencies to contact us seeking information," he said.

Fleming Terrell, a law clerk with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas in Austin, said the organization had sent an open records request to the city.

"We wanted to confirm that it was a city-funded museum which would subject it to the First Amendment," Terrell said. "We also requested information on how art was selected, any policies they have on removal of art, any policies on nudes in particular, and we also requested information on Mr. Gonzalez's exhibit specifically."

Terrell said that although she has worked in Austin for only six months, this is the second such exhibit she has worked on. The previous case dealt with the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock. An artist there was told to take down a painting of a nude woman and another of a clothed woman breast-feeding. After the ACLU request, city officials invited the artist to display her work again.

"Barocco en la Frontera" contains more than two dozen of Gonzalez's drawings and paintings. Several of them are nude figure studies and three have full frontal nudity.

It is those three that have caused the controversy.

Joel Humphries, director of Arts and Entertainment for the city, said it was all a case of bad timing.

In the museum's other gallery is "Taking Flight: A History of Kites." Humphries said hundreds of local school children are scheduled to tour the exhibit within the next month.

"We didn't want some child wandering in there, supervised or not supervised ... and then the next thing you know we have upset parents calling city commissioners," Humphries said.

Gabriel Gonzalez, the city official, said he originally wanted to display the three works in question in a separate room with a closed door.

Rigoberto Gonzalez said the city official first wanted the paintings removed entirely or put in a separate room where people were required to sign in before viewing them.

The compromise reached was that the doors to the gallery would remain closed and display a warning sign about the content.

Patricia Morales, museum coordinator for HAHM, said the works are executed in a classical style and are hardly obscene.

"I'm very proud that we're exhibiting them," she said. "They're very beautiful."

Humphries said he personally doesn't find the paintings offensive.

"In fact, I brought my children to the opening of the exhibit," he said. "But I don't have the right to make that decision for every parent."