UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 19, Page 7
February 13, 1992
Mapplethorpe presentation Feb. 25

     Dennis Barrie, director of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC)
in Cincinnati-the man at the center of the controversy surrounding
the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition, will speak at the University on
Tuesday, Feb. 25.
     His talk, "Robert Mapplethorpe, the First Amendment and the
Freedom of Expression" will begin at 7:30 p.m. in 140 Smith Hall.
     Originally scheduled Nov. 13, the talk was postponed because
Barrie was ill.
     The Feb. 25 talk is free and open to the public.
     A reception will follow at the University Gallery in Old
College.
     In 1990, both Barrie and CAC were indicted and later acquitted
of two criminal counts each of "pandering obscenity" and "the
illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented materials."  The charges
followed the opening of an exhibition of 175 Mapplethorpe
photographs, entitled "The Perfect Moment." At issue were five
photographs that depicted homoerotic acts and two of seminude
children.
     The case is believed to be the first criminal trial of an art
museum arising from the contents of an exhibition.
     Barrie decided to open the exhibition despite mounting
pressure from a conservative group known as Citizens for Community
Values. On opening day, a jury was impaneled and taken to view the
exhibition. Within hours it issued the criminal indictments. On
Oct. 5, 1990, a Cincinnati jury acquitted Barrie and the museum of
all charges.
     A question-and-answer session is scheduled after Barrie's
lecture, and at the conclusion of the session he will show slides
of the exhibit including the controversial photographs. The images
contain explicit material, and audience members who do not wish to
view the slides will be given an opportunity to adjourn to the
reception before to the slide show.
     Barrie served as Midwest director for the Smithsonian
Institution Archives of American Art before becoming director of
CAC, one of the nation's largest institutions dedicated to
contemporary programming.
     He received the 1990 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for
upholding the right of CAC to exhibit artworks its finds of value.
In l988 and l986, he received the Post-Corbett Award, a regional
award for achievement in the arts.
     Barrie's talk is part of the University's Performing Arts
Series and is sponsored by the Delaware Division of the Arts, the
Delaware Art Museum, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art and
the following University departments and offices: the offices of
the President and International Programs and Special Sessions, the
University Gallery, the Cultural Activities and Public Events
Committee of the Faculty Senate, the Museum Studies Program and the
Departments of Theatre, Music, Art, Political Science and Art
History.
     For more information on the lecture or the Performing Arts
Series, contact Marti Collins at 831-2852.