The last few years have been hard on visual art. To folks in the malls and on Capitol Hill, art is about as welcome as Calvin Klein at a PTA meeting. Hassles over Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley I and Ron Athey have taken their toll on the art world. Kathy Halbreich, director of Minneapolis's hip Walker Art Center, says, "It's obviously a more conservative time. The experimental is suddenly taboo." At the stupendously rich (and not depend-ent on public money) Getty Museum, director John Walsh concurs: "I don't doubt there's a chill in the air." But "the big general art museums haven't been in the forefront of shocking the public with what's new." Whatever, the autumn exhibition menu favors gold-plated art with a capital A.
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