Review of ‘Drawings’ Draws Anger

We the undersigned, as participants in and supporters of the Los Angeles arts community, wish to register our strong objection to the William Wilson review of the show “Lari Pittman Drawings,” currently at the Armand Hammer Museum (“The Decadent Decor of Pittman’s ‘Drawings,’ ” Calendar, Feb. 7).

Besides being naive about contemporary art (“works on paper in various media” have been considered drawings since the onset of the

20th century, e.g. Picasso), inaccurate in observation of the subject matter of the drawings (there are no anuses), the review, and The Times’ willingness to print it, demonstrate a deplorable homophobia.

Lari Pittman, an internationally recognized artist and “arguably . . . the most significant American painter of his generation” according to your paper in January 1996, in the first of two major museum retrospectives was treated with apparent contempt and personal animosity.

This contempt extends to dismissing Pittman’s complex body of work, widely recognized as speaking to human issues such as mortality, love, hope and despair, as “camp gay humor” and “therapeutic exercise.” This is an outrageous example of a pattern of irresponsibility that Wilson has consistently demonstrated in reviewing work over the last 10 years. The Times is culpable for continuing to support personal attacks under the guise of art criticism.

Linda Burnham

Tom Knechtel

Donald Krieger

Clyde Beswick

Roger White

Erika Rothenberg

Rita Ferri

Nancy Doll

Lorrin & Deane Wong

John Sonsini

Neil Hoffman

Richard Telles

Jim Isermann

Bernard Cooper

Anne Ayres

Benjamin Weissman

Bia Lowe

Michael Duncan

Amy Gerstler

Robin Mitchell

Amelia Jones

Jacci Den Hartog

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We were dismayed to read William Wilson’s recent review of “Lari Pittman Drawings” at the Armand Hammer Museum. We feel that this review was both disrespectful in its tone and inordinately dismissive, especially given the caliber of the work and the stature of the artist.

In all candor, we wonder whether this thoughtfully selected and elegantly mounted exhibition--an obvious tour-de-force--did not inadvertently become a casualty of aesthetic differences between Times critics; Christopher Knight only recently called Lari Pittman “the most important painter of his generation.”

Whatever the reason, exhibitions of this quality are rare indeed, and should be dignified with the serious critical consideration they deserve.

Alexis Smith

Scott Grieger

Venice