Colwell Painting to be hung at City Hall?

SF Examiner:

Abuse painting in City Hall?
Supe wants to show support for gallery.

By J.K. Dineen | Staff Writer
Published on Thursday, June 3, 2004 URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/index.cfm/i/060304n_painting

The controversial painting depicting Iraqi prisoner abuse which drove a harassed North Beach gallery owner to shut her doors last week, may soon adorn a much more prominent building: City Hall.

District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin plans to introduce a resolution June 8 condemning the vandalism and attacks at the Capobianco gallery on Powell Street and calling for the oil painting -- which shows American soldiers torturing naked Iraqi prisoners -- to be hung in the hallowed halls of City Hall.

Peskin said moving the painting into the center of city government would send a strong message that The City condemned the attacks against the Capobianco Art Gallery and its owner, Lori Haigh.

"I'm not talking about the Board's chambers, but somewhere in City Hall where art is usually shown, like the art gallery," said Peskin.

Haigh's troubles started on May 16 when she displayed Guy Colwell's painting "The Abuse" in her window before closing down for a few days. When she returned, she found her gallery egged and trashed and her e-mail and voice-mail boxes full of angry messages accusing her of anti-Americanism.

After May 20, when The Examiner published the first of a series of articles on the controversy, supporters started to rally to Haigh's defense -- but the disturbing attacks increased. Strangers threatened the gallery owner's life, and she was spat on and punched, knocking her unconscious.

On Saturday, about 100 gallery supporters and free-speech advocates -- along with a pack of television and newspaper reporters -- rallied on the sidewalk as Colwell and Haigh stood in the gallery.

Prominent Republican Mike DeNunzio called Peskin's plan "a shame."

"I would have thought better of Aaron Peskin," he said. "There is no need for something like that -- obviously he has some need to preserve publicity."

DeNunzio said he would "have more respect for Peskin's conduct" if the supervisor were willing to decorate City Hall with images showing the other side of the story.

"Would he also like to put a photograph of the young man whose head was sawed off by terrorists?" asked DeNunzio. "Would he also like to put up photograph of the thousands of men and women who were murdered by Saddam Hussein?"

Richard Newirth, director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission, said the painting could be hung in the basement of City Hall, where the commission runs a gallery, or the supervisors could choose to give it a more central showing.

"I assume they would want to put it in a more prominent location," he said. "They could put it in one of the light courts or outside the supervisors' chambers. It would be it up to them to decide. They would only have to coordinate with the building manager of City Hall."

In a related development, the owner of another North Beach art gallery -- Live Worms Gallery on Grant Avenue -- said someone has made a veiled threat against his gallery as well. Owner Kevin Brown said a man walked into his gallery and engaged him in a debate about the Capobianco attacks and the Iraq war in general. On his way out, he said, "you're next," according to Brown.

He praised Peskin for agreeing to hang the painting in City Hall.

"I think it's kind of him to posit that possibility, but I would be surprised if the board and the mayor allowed it," he said. "I would enjoy seeing it hanging in City Hall, or my gallery for that matter."