I had the pleasure of discovering Tsehai Johnson’s graceful porcelain sculptures in “Colorado 2002: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art” at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where she was a standout.
Since then, I have been impressed every time I have seen her work, including a four-person exhibition at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art and a juried show at Studio Aiello, where she won best of show in three-dimensional art.
Displaying extraordinary technical mastery of the ceramic medium, the 38-year-old Denver artist makes clever, wonderfully conceptual pieces that draw on a host of sources, including art history and everyday life. She is quite simply one of the best artists in the state.
Given that, I was alarmed and angered to see her the target of attacks last week by Gov. Bill Owens and the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank in Golden.
In 2003, Johnson received a $5,000 fellowship from the Colorado Council on the Arts (the fellowship program has since been discontinued). According to a Denver Post/9News report, the institute recently discovered she created a ceramic work in 2000 originally titled “Twelve Dildos on Hooks.”
Jon Caldera, president of the institute, ripped the piece out of its larger context and dismissed it as “smut.” Owens, without seeing the piece, said, “Obviously, this is offensive and in extremely poor taste.”
One might think from reading those comments that Johnson, a mother of two, would make an excellent candidate for president of the National Pornographers of America, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Unlike such agit-prop artists as Andres Serrano or Karen Finley, Johnson creates primarily abstract or semi-abstract pieces, often drawing inspiration from household objects such as cleaning brushes.
As I wrote in a December 2004 review, “Fresh and inventive, they retain a hint of functionality, but their fanciful nature is made clear by their stylized, gently subverted forms.”
If Johnson’s 2000 work that has sparked this needless controversy was inspired by dildos, who cares? What is so horrifying about that?
It is important to realize that artists are inspired by all kinds of things, with many drawing from the darker sides of society. Toulouse-Lautrec, for example, created an entire series portraying prostitutes. Today those works are showcased in wildly popular museum shows, and reproductions are found in countless homes.
Art can be cute and friendly. But some of the best artworks ever created, from Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” to Goya’s “Disasters of War” to Picasso’s “Guernica” provoke, and, yes, sometimes, offend.
This game of using the arts as a political football, which Sen. Jesse Helms turned into a regular sport back in the late 1980s, has grown tiresome, especially considering how little government support the arts receive.
In fiscal 2005, which ended June 30, the Colorado Council on the Arts received $500,000 in state support. That makes Colorado a pitiful 48th in the nation in terms of per-capita state spending on the arts.
Rather than attacking her, the governor and other political leaders should be doing more to support Johnson and artists like her.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this whole ugly episode is the pathetic capitulation of the state arts council, the agency that should be riding to Johnson’s defense.
Apparently scared the council could lose its meager state appropriation, executive director Elaine Mariner not only didn’t fully back Johnson but she at least partially joined in the attacks.
There is much talk about Colorado being a culturally conducive place, but why would any artist want to come to or remain in a state where the governor launches cheap, politically inspired assaults on artists?
If Mayor John Hickenlooper is serious about his desire to attract the creative class to Denver and make this city a true arts center, he should make a public stand and back Johnson. She is exactly the kind of sophisticated artist this city needs.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
