http://www.ashleyb.org/archives/000416.html

Our Lady (an update)

Following my post yesterday, I emailed the museum asking to confirm or deny comments made by ÒLa Voz de AztlanÓ. The director of the museum, Joe Felz, was most graceful in replying promptly and sending me a press release issued on August 5. I reprint most of it here:

"The first article (in ÒLa Voz de AztlanÓ), written in the form of an open letter to me, alleged the MuseumÕs press release stated the exhibit would contain an artwork by Alma Lopez which the writer called ÒGuadalupe in a BikiniÓ (The actual title of the work in question, according to Ms. Lopez, is ÒOur Lady.Ó) The writer protested what he said was the inclusion of this artwork in our exhibit.

After reading the letter, I contacted Mr. Cienfuegos and told him the information he had published was inaccurate in that we were not - nor had we planned on - exhibiting the work in question. We were, in fact, planning to exhibit an entirely different work by Ms. Lopez titled ÒMaria de Los Angeles,Ó which honors a woman who has done much for the people of Los Angeles.

Rather than correcting his inaccurate article, Mr. Cienfuegos instead published a follow-up piece Aug. 3 which implied that, based on the information that he provided us, the ÒLadyÓ piece had been removed, and the Museum would ÒinsteadÓ exhibit ÒMaria de Los Angeles.Ó Again, this is a completely inaccurate statement on his part as the ÒLadyÓ piece was never considered for this exhibit.

The piece ÒMaria de Los AngelesÓ was selected months ago by our guest curator (Lynn LaBate) for inclusion in the exhibit. During the time she was researching possible artwork for the exhibit, our guest curator considered several of Ms. LopezÕ works, as well as works by numerous other artists. She eventually selected ÒMaria de Los AngelesÓ as the piece that best fit the curatorial themes in the exhibit".

August 06, 2004 | 10:43 AM