Success: Guggenheim Museum Pulls Cruel Animal ‘Art’ from Exhibit

Target: Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Goal: Support the decision not to show controversial ‘art’ works that use animal cruelty to communicate their message.

Following much outrage from animal advocates, New York’s Guggenheim Museum has announced its decision to shut down several ‘art’ displays that depict live animals facing off with one another. Thanks to petitions like this one, the Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World exhibit, which is set to open next month, will not include works such as Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other (2003) and other ‘art’ that involves animal cruelty.

Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other shows American pit bulls tied to wooden treadmills, running ‘at’ each other but unable to touch, as if they are being trained to fight. Another work to be pulled features live reptiles and insects ‘devouring each other’ inside a glass enclosure. This decision is a huge victory for animal rights. Sign below to support the choice not to give animal cruelty a place in artistic expression.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

The decision to pull artworks depicting animal cruelty from the Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World exhibit is the responsible and ethical choice. Although “challenging and provocative artwork that seeks to examine and critique systems of power and control,” as the Guggenheim called Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other (2003), is to be valued and respected, it is no excuse for condoning cruelty to and exploitation of innocent animals.

Theater of the World (1993) and A Case Study of Transference (1994), which will also be pulled from the exhibit, are also examples of art that cause pain or stress to the animals involved, which the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals clearly opposes. I support the removal of these works from the Guggenheim’s exhibit.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu


6 Comments

  1. kimberley Butcher says:

    this isnt art its SICK. and we should evaluate the owner for some serial killer intentions cuz no one thats normal enjoys this CRAP

  2. I’m all for an artist who wants to do whatever they want to their own body or to the body of another willing participant, but dogs are as sentient as six year old humans and if we did the same to children, nobody would call it art. This isn’t art. It’s cruelty and bullshit attention seeking. One of those dogs had cuts on the face, and while they don’t look too serious, it was a serious fight that put them there. I’ve seen my fair share of dog fights, and dogs don’t mark eachother up like that unless they are in a REAL fight, and if dogs fight like that, it is a VERY serious matter. MOST DOGS DONT TRY TO KILL EACHOTHER. It takes some doing to get them in that state of mind, whether it be serious neglect or abuse.

  3. This is abominable. People should be questioning how this “show” ever came to be! Once again money over morals. This does not depict “art”, but caters more to the depraved and sadistic. Spanish well fit this description.

  4. What kind of sick person classes animal cruelty as art????

  5. Linda Amundson says:

    Very glad these “exhibits” have been pulled.

  6. This is censorship, plain and simple. What’s next? A ban of films like Apocalypse Now? TV shows about fishing and hunting? Please voice your point of view but don’t rally to censor art on the grounds it upsets you and therefore is morally objectionable. No, you don’t get to decide what’s art and what’s not. You don’t get to decide what’s moral and what’s not. It’s a slippery slope…today you shut down art you find objectionable and tomorrow your voice could be shut down because someone else finds it objectionable. These artists’ works should be exhibited– and your opinions should be expressed.

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