Leading U.S. Artists Deplore Choice of Baghdad As Site of International Art Conference

Forty-four leading American painters and sculptors have joined in a public statement deploring the choice of Baghdad, Iraq. as the site of the current Eighth World Congress of the International Association of Art. The Congress, which began on May 17. ends tomorrow. Among the American artists who have signed the statement are Willem de Kooning. Robert Motherwell, Robert Gwathmey, Chaim Gross, Robert Indiana, Raphael Soyer, Avitzl Oz, Doris Zaslavsky, and Jack Levine.

Their protest was released today by the American Jewish Congress, which circulated the statement among leading figures in the American art world. The statement said that “by meeting in Baghdad the IAA has in effect closed its eyes to Iraq’s long history of brutal racist atrocities, of execution without trial and of victimization of its ethnic and religious minorities.”

According to the protest, “the IAA has de facto barred the participation of Israeli artists and indeed of all Jewish artists, none of whom can be safe or secure in a country which has endorsed and applauded terrorist activities aimed at Israel and the Jewish people.” There are an estimated 500 Jews in Iraq, all that remain of a population of some 200,000 that emigrated from Baghdad and other cities following the establishment of Israel in 1948. On Jan. 27, 1969, eight Jews and Christians were hanged in a public square in Baghdad as spies for Israel.

The artists’ protest linked the choice of Baghdad as the site for the Congress with the fact that the secretariat of the International Association of Art is honored at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. The IAA enjoys consultative status with the UNESCO General Conference and derives some of its funds from that source.

CYNICISM OF CONFAB NOTED

The artists’ statement declared: “The essential cynicism of meeting in a brutal and autocratic state for the purpose of examining the constructive role of the artist in society and against racism appears to be altogether lost upon the leadership of the IAA.” The theme of the Congress is “The Artist Today–A Constructive Participant in Society” and features a special exhibition on “Artists Against Racism.” Asserting that it was “not surprising that the IAA has become degraded and politicized.” the statement declared:

“We can only deplore the current meeting as a deliberate effort to divide the world fellowship of artists. We are not attending this meeting of the IAA nor can we condone the decision of those who are. We view the Eighth World Congress as representing the crass subordination of artistic principle to political expediency. We can imagine no other circumstances in which the IAA would accept as a suitable site for its International Congress a place in which many of its members because of their religious or ethnic connection would be either excluded or subjected to possible humiliation or physical hazard.”

The statement concluded: “We call upon artists and upon men of conscience everywhere to repudiate the present meeting and the motives behind it. As artists we are dedicated to the principles of freedom, dignity and decency for all. The meeting in Iraq makes a mockery of these ideals.”

The International Association of Art. founded in 1954, is composed of national art organizations in 65 countries. Its president is William A. Smith of Pineville, Pa., the first American to serve in that capacity. Because of illness, Smith is not attending the Congress in Baghdad.