After growing up in the repressive climate of Indonesia, internationally exhibited painter Entang Wiharso never expected to encounter an episode of censorship in Rhode Island. But the artist canceled an exhibition of his work at the Rhode Island Foundation Gallery -- which had been scheduled to open Thursday, January 16 -- after foundation officials insisted on not including one of the most vital works in the show.

"He really feels that this work is important and he created it for the Rhode Island audience," says Wiharso's wife, Christine Cocca, referring to "Portrait In the Gold Rain," which depicts a squatting, farting figure and was one of 31 paintings intended for inclusion in the Rhode Island Foundation (RIF) show. During a meeting on Wednesday, January 15, foundation president Ronald Gallo and other officials expressed concern that some people might see the painting as vulgar or sexual, Cocca says, and mistakenly conclude that the squatting figure is defecating.

"The painting isn't about those issues that they are concerned about," Cocca says. "We're willing to put up wall text," articulating Wiharso's view of the work and explaining that squatting has a different social connotation -- one of relaxing -- in Indonesian culture. "We know that Entang's work is often challenging," she says, but RIF officials rejected the proposal for explanatory text. As the Phoenix was going to press, Wiharso decided to scrap the entire "Hurting Landscape" show, which had been scheduled to run through March 18.

RIF spokesman Rich Schwartz calls the work in question "a wonderful painting." But so many people visit the foundation "who don't come in for an arts experience that we're being a little protective of them," Schwartz says. "We were real clear that it's the surprise factor that we're trying to avoid." Besides RIF and its two-year-old gallery, the building at One Union Station in Providence houses public radio station WRNI-AM, Rhode Island Kids Count, an advocacy group, and Downcity Providence.

Schwartz says foundation officials had held out hope that Wiharso would display "Portrait" during the scheduled opening of his work on the gallery night of Thursday, January 16 -- when a specific audience of art enthusiasts would gravitate to the gallery -- and even make a strong statement against censorship.

It was unclear at deadline if RIF officials had rejected an alternative last-minute proposal to display "Portrait" in a separate room for the length of Wiharso's scheduled exhibition. At any rate, Cocca says, "He feels it's a shame that the controversy is becoming more important than the work."

Cocca and Wiharso, a gentle, physically slight man who has a studio in Foster, divide their time between Rhode Island and Indonesia. The painter, whose work has been displayed in the US, Europe and Asia, creates challenging, fascinating work. At the same time, his paintings are far removed from the deliberately provocative efforts of artists like Chris Ofili, known for creating a portrait of the Virgin Mary with feces, and Damien Hirst

Noting that the RIF gallery is different in several ways from for-profit counterparts, Schwartz identifies the issue as the wisdom of displaying edgy art in highly public places. "The question is whether we've made a good decision," he adds. "Hopefully, we'll learn from it."

But for veterans of America's culture wars, the episode reeks of censorship and heavy-handedness. Judith Tannenbaum, the Richard Brown Baker curator of contemporary art at the RISD Museum, who hasn't seen the painting in question, but is familiar with Wiharso's work, says, "I think it's really unfortunate. In addition to raising the question of artistic freedom, if the work isn't shown at all, it can sell the audience short." Tannenbaum, who was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia when it organized a controversial show of photos by Robert Mapplethorpe in the late '80s, says such episodes have left a legacy of "trying to be overly protective of the public."

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.

Issue Date: January 17 - 23, 2003