Anonymous street artist puts up mural condemning MOCA director [Updated]

An anonymous L.A. street artist spoke out Thursday about MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch's decision to paint over another artist's mural that he had commissioned -- making a statement in the form of a provocative piece of guerrilla poster art glued to the exterior wall of the restaurant Zip Fusion Sushi on Traction Avenue and Third Street in Little Tokyo.

The wheat-pasted mural depicts the face of Deitch on the body of an Iranian ayatollah holding an extension pole with a paint roller at the end -- and it's set against Italian street artist Blu's now-controversial anti-war imagery. 

Blu's enormous mural was painted on the north side of the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo and pictured rows of coffins cloaked in dollar bills. The mural was commissioned by the museum in advance of its upcoming "Art in the Streets" show next April. But Deitch said Monday that the mural was insensitive to the neighborhood, as it was adjacent to both a Veterans Affairs hospital and a war memorial to Japanese-American soldiers. Deitch also said he had intended to meet with the artist before the mural went up, but was unable to due to travel complications on Blu's end and the fact that Deitch had to leave town to attend a Miami art fair.

Photos of the new mural were posted on Facebook Thursday afternoon by iGreen, an art collective whose members remain anonymous. iGreen describes itself on its Facebook page as "a group of artists not affiliated with any political party, organization or group, presents (sic) a series of art events in solidarity with the Iranian people's struggle for freedom and justice."

The anonymous artist asked a friend, John Carr --  a political poster artist himself and part of the street art collective Yo! Peace -- to relay a statement about the new mural to Culture Monster:

"A giant antiwar mural right in the heart of L.A.’s political district was erased by the museum staff just after it was finished. MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch claimed it was potentially offensive to the community. Can there be a more perfect example of censorship? Does it not border on Orwellianism to call it something else?"

Carr said that the new mural went up Thursday afternoon -- independently of Blu, who had no knowledge of it -- and that one reason the location was chosen was because it's a few blocks from the Geffen Contemporary.

That particular wall also has a long history of showcasing local political poster art. "It’s kind of the neighborhood editorial space," Carr said. "There are a couple of property owners in the neighborhood that allow regular wheat pasting on their walls -- they don't remove anything -- and so it's a common place for people to come and make political commentaries and artists' statements of every kind."

Carr also says there are "layers upon layers -- hundreds, maybe thousands -- of pieces of paper that have been put up there for the last five years. Possibly much longer."  Local street artists Cryptik, Abcnt, Mark of the Beast and Political Gridlock have posted artwork there.

Carr discussed some of the work's references: "It's typical that there's censorship of free speech in countries under dictatorial control, like Iran; also, the pink color in the undergarment is a reference to the pink suits that Jeffrey Deitch has been seen to wear.”

Zip Fusion manager Ugi Luv says that the 8-year-old restaurant supports local artists. "The restaurant’s wall is for the local artists to post their work. So we let them do their thing," Luv said. 

Opinions have been heated and sharply divided over the MOCA/Blu incident. There have been outcries alleging censorship; others have been surprised that Deitch allowed Blu to proceed without advance planning. Yet others have applauded Deitch for his attention to the often-marginalized art genre, saying that not getting a pre-approved plan for the mural was just a logistical bump in the road. 

One street artist, Alex Poli Jr., a.k.a. Man One -- who's also the owner of Crewest gallery downtown -- said he felt the artists participating in MOCA's upcoming show have been not-so-curiously silent.  "They don't want to jeopardize the opportunity to be in the exhibit," he said.  

But the unnamed Zip Fusion muralist told Carr his/her own reasons for remaining anonymous. "[The artist] told me the nature of street art is generally anonymous," Carr said. "And so this person has chosen to operate in that way."

[For the Record, 8:20 a.m. Monday: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Japanese-American soldiers as Japanese soldiers.]

--Deborah Vankin
Twitter.com/@debvankin

Photos: Poster art in response to MOCA's whitewashing of Italian artist Blu's mural. Credit: iGreen.

Comments

[kay]

Why was Jeffery Deitch not involved in seeing the plans for the mural before the whole wall was finished? He left town for Miami? He is responsible for this misunderstanding, not the artist. Why didn't someone in charge notice ahead of time that the content of the mural might be taken badly by veterans and Japanese American community? Blu's time and effort planning the mural was wasted due to MOCA's poor planning and oversight.

[Matt]

Was was he in Miami? Um, well, there was the Art Basel and it's part of his job to travel to such events. Blu started the mural when Mr. Deitch was gone and without an "ok" from the museum. To his credit, Blu has received just what he wanted - publicity, and arguably much more than if the mural had stayed up. I think that it's just the placement of the mural that was the problem. If it was inside, I'm sure it would have stayed up. But, having it (the mural) so close to the Japanese War Memorial and the VA is just bad judgment. Bottom line is, if you're commissioned to do a piece of art, very rarely do you have carte blanche to do what you want. Congrats to Mr. Deitch on making a tough, but controversial decision. As for Blu, I hope he stays around and vents through his street art for awhile yet. I always enjoy seeing new pieces go up.

[su chi]

so jeffrey, youre saying that when you saw the first coffin and dollar bill draped over it, you didn't think is insensitive or possibly controversial then? you had to wait until the artist completed the entire dammm wall (several coffins with dollar bills draped over them) before you ordered to whitewash it?
something smells fishy in jtown and it aint the jenky sushi place down the street...

[Mat Gleason]

The TIMES is nothing if not consistent in sticking to Christopher Knight's reflexive heterophobic hatred of all things Deitch.

[CG Stuart]

Protest art protests the removal of protest art. The original artist's naively simplistic take on the issue of war was trite, and the childish fit-throwing protest isn't even as clever as the original. Art has historically worked to advance its condition by subterfuge. That lesser artists in the last couple decades have taken it upon themselves to carry the sophomore class's political banner is third rate, at best.

[Dino Dinco]

It's reckless (convenient and above all, arrogant on Deitch's behalf) to assume that the "community" around MOCA's Geffen -- particularly veterans and their families -- would be offended by this mural and what it represents.

Did MOCA offer a platform for those veterans who support the message(s) Blu put forth in his work? No. What about the veterans and their families who feel strongly about a public, albeit temporary, monument acknowledging the money that is made from militarism -- at the expense of the lives of soldiers?

It appears much tidier for Deitch to have executed a swipe of anti-street art erasure under the guise of a matrix of, again, reckless and arrogant assumptions.

[Dino Dinco]

Tsk.

"I think everyone understands that programmatic decisions are best left to the museum curators and director," says board Co-Chairman David Johnson. "The board is behind Jeffrey."

As for the reason Deitch offered for the decision, Johnson buys it: "I believe it was a very human decision, made out of respect for veterans in the community."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/12/much-attention-has-been-paid-to-the-street-art-communitys-reaction-to-jeffrey-deitchs-decision-to-remove-blus-mural-from-moca.html

[Zal]

The Japanese Americans are not warmongers. It is an excuse to say the Japanese Americans would be offended. They were offended when they were put in internment camps by the United States government in 1942. This mural portrayed the war in Iraq and the current state of affairs in a country mired by hypocrisy, secrecy censorship, their uncanny support of tyrannical regimes and the ethnic cleansing of minorities in the Middle East .
Make no mistake about it the order came from somewhere else!

[Chris]

It's possible this is poor planning, but since when does "street art" need to be sensitive to particular groups? The whole purpose of street art is to make a public statement as loud as possible, it's meant to stir emotions and get a reaction. MOCA knows what each one of these artists is capable of, so why hire someone like Blu in the first place if you weren't prepared for his message?

And while it definitely sucks to have your work destroyed, on the other hand Blu is enjoying some major notoriety right now, both within and outside of his normal circle. Not to mention that his work is being seen by many, many more this way (including those same veterans MOCA was sensitive to), so his message is wider spread and so much more poignant now.

Whatever the case, I hope this show still goes off in April. I have been eagerly awaiting it since I first heard the news a couple months ago and it would be a shame if this unfortunate act sidelined it.

[rickinla]

moca is a joke. so is the conceptual art they love so much. it's all gimmick, smoke and mirrors. reminds of that classic tale, the emperor's new clothes. Its time people started demanding real art(see moca's permanent collection, in which most of the work is not conceptual art). Besides, all art forms have concepts, nothings spawns from nothing. Stop showing conceptual garbage down our throats! As for street art, it belongs where it currently dwells, in the streets.

[david]

Anonymous but for how long?
This site covers street art news perhaps they'll know soon?
http://www.streetartnews.net/

[innercity]

If the Chardonnay-sippers at MOCA want to see some street art, why don't they just go outside and take a look around. Presenting it in a sterile well-lit gallery environment will take the life out of it.

[Hollywood Mark]

Schmucks, the only thing that matters in this case is the censorship of political art. Everything else is a window dressing.

[LA_Observer]

Generally speaking, private institutions and individuals have the right to make decisions about what they do with their money. I'd be curious to know how many of the responders here who take such umbrage with MOCA's actions would have otherwise said or done anything had this article not appeared? Much good art is made that is never seen; much bad art is made that gets privileged attention. Just like music, writing, or other creative endeavors, there is little fairness or balance guiding what is elevated above the rest. Getting exorcised about it doesn't change a thing.

[ScribedLA]

@Mat GLeason - what the hell does your comment mean?

[william wray]

Who's to say the coffins are the war dead anyway? I know its the implication, but they could be flood victims... There going to be a group that’s offended everywhere you put any work outside. I'm curious if just flag draped coffins would be considered offensive.

[tda]

The comment that graffiti artists aren't saying anything because they want to be in the show is, I'm afraid, true.

Shepherd Fairy's statement earlier demonstrates that these grafitti artists are happy to squawk about all of societies ills but as soon as something as blatant as this act of censorship happens they are quick to ignore it.

If another more institutional museum director (who wasn't his former art dealer) had done this, Shepherd Fairy would be writing op-eds and getting all up in people's faces. So so so hypocritical.

[tda]

This is another example of a gallery director not getting what it means to be a museum director.

His excuse for not knowing anything about the mural is that he was at some parties in Miami? I hope Maria Bell has a sit down with him stat - because this reflects so poorly on all of the hard work that MOCA does in the community.

Like all of his other quotes, he exists to please, tickle, and amuse the super rich of the West Side, which is less than like 1% of Los Angeles.

This man has no vision for bringing art to the multicultural melting pot that is LA.

[Dumbo]

Censorship... Bad taste... Really old idea (dollars on coffins) that has been presented in almost the exact same way a couple of hundred times... So badly rendered... poor choice of color and design... The valid simpleton statement that war is bad is a good thing... especially if one pays no attention to the international and local dynamics affecting the human beings in that (stan) neighborhood. Don't kill is a great sentiment. Meanwhile a bunch of yahoos are killing the locals, all day, every day.

The mural was a piece of crap. Glad it's gone. Masturbating about a generic generality is not a political stance, but more likely an effort to push people's buttons to achieve a knee jerk reaction--and perhaps to become the commercially successful spokesperson for true goodliness. Or at least get a few free drinks, puffs, and pills in return.

US policy is often totally messed up, fer sure. ---Just like the rest of the power mongers worldwide. The government of Somalia is headed by the Warlord who was able to kill his competition. Sadly that's how the world works, has worked and may perhaps forever work. (puke).

It don't really matter to me who might be offended. I just hate stupid crappy opportunist art [sic] and the creeps who make the wimpy, wishy washy stuff, and try to convince the under-informed just how meaningful the dumbass masterpiece and premise was to begin with.

Street art is swell. If we could chuck in a few minutes of education, we might get better art in the streets.

[dwg]

Deitch said that when he got to LA, there was so much to do he had to "hit the ground running." Well, he's running, but he has yet to hit the ground. He hasn't made and isn't bothering to make himself aware of Los Angeles qua art city--he just kind of seems to take everyone else's word for things: everyone else besides native Angeleno artists, I mean. This is like his little play-acting thing of being an LA museum director--that stint on that soap opera was perfect--all of the trappings, and none of the substance.

Watch this space--next up: "Modernism And Beyond, curated by Steve Martin!"