San Francisco Chronicle
'Erase In' for Iraq rub-out
N.Y. museum show draws unique protest
Kenneth Baker Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Conflicting but apparently encouraging reports have surfaced lately amending
the initial estimate of losses to the Iraq National Museum from looting
after the fall of Baghdad.
It now appears that a large number of important items presumed lost may have
been secured by museum staff long before the invasion began. Confusion may
persist about exactly what went missing because Iraqi authorities with
jurisdiction over the secreted treasures will not allow outsiders access to
them.
In any case, news that the loss was not as bad as feared has not quelled the
shock that, despite urgent warnings, the invasion force apparently gave
little or no thought to protecting Baghdad's major museum and library
against plunder.
Ten days ago, members of a New York group called Artists Against the War
staged an unusual protest of what they consider inexcusable official
indifference to the fate of Iraq's cultural patrimony.
Those concerned artists staged a daylong "Erase In" in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art's exhibition "Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium
B.C. From the Mediterranean to the Indus" (through Aug. 17).
Some 60 people came to draw objects in "Art of the First Cities" and then
erase them "to symbolically reflect the erasure of Iraqi culture and the
silencing of dissent here at home," as the group's e-mail invitation put it.
"The galleries were quite crowded, especially in the afternoon," co-
organizer Joyce Kozloff told The Chronicle in an e-mail. "Some sketchers had
words in their open pads that referred to the looted art and explained the
action." One participant "pointed out the complete absence of the word Iraq
in all wall labels. It was always referred to as Mesopotamia, although other
countries, like Iran and Syria, were named. Very few people asked us why we
were drawing, but they often collected around us and quietly watched us
erase, then spoke to us about it afterward, particularly toward the end of
the day. The evening crowd was more relaxed and interactive, so we were glad
we had remained in the museum. It was arduous -- there are no benches in the
show and we were not permitted to sit on the floor."
Before the American and British invasion of Iraq the group had organized
"Draw Ins" of ancient Near Eastern art in museums around the world.
The Met began planning "Art of the First Cities" years ago and could not
accept artifacts on loan from Iraqi museums because of U.N. sanctions. But
the exhibition contains material comparable in age, beauty and significance
to much that was believed stolen from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad.
Ancient cylinder seals on view are among the roots of pictorial narrative
and possibly linked with the origins of writing, through their use of
inscribed symbols.
The exhibition is organized around ancient city sites where antiquities were
unearthed, with a portion of its theme being that the cities themselves are
part of the Near East's enduring legacy.
The overarching irony of "Art of the First Cities" is that so many of the
antiquities in the exhibition owe their present safety to having been the
plunder of previous colonialist incursions in the Near East. .
A museum's virtual expansion: The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
Archive recently upgraded its Web site, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu, to make it
one of the most extensive of its kind.
The site now permits searching and purchase viewing of the museum store's 4,
000-volume inventory, complete technical and partial visual documentation of
the institution's collections, including rare archival material.
Links are also offered to image files documenting the collections of 11
other California museums.
The museum has also embarked on a long-term collaborative project studying
how best to document and preserve digital art and other ephemeral
contemporary art forms.
E-mail Kenneth Baker at kennethbaker@sfchronicle.com.