Artists Call for Boycott After Artforum Fires Its Top Editor for not Being Pro-Israel

[BidenPresident]

One day after Artforum magazine fired its top editor, David Velasco, because of an open letter it published about the Israel-Hamas war, another editor resigned and several prominent artists said they would boycott the publication unless Velasco was reinstated.

“I have never lived through a more chilling period,” said Goldin, who is one of the most celebrated living photographers and signed the open letter that called for Palestinian liberation and a cease-fire. “People are being blacklisted. People are losing their jobs.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/arts/design/artforum-boycott-goldin-eisenman.html

 

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More than a dozen artists told The New York Times that threats of reprisal from collectors made it difficult to publicly defend their decision to sign the open letter, emphasizing that their intention was to call for peace.

“Collectors are always, in one way or another, making a big deal out of something an artist signed,” said Eisenman, an artist who has exhibited with institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. “But it is still surprising to learn how many collectors believe that owning a few drawings of mine means they get to tell me what to do with my name.”