SARAH E. WORTH

The Ethics of Exhibitions: On the Presentation of Religious Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021

Typically, in the presentation of art, those who objections to certain ways of presenting art that present the art want those who see it to see it in one owns. Whether one fails to meet an ethical a particular way. That a presenter would like to obligation will, of course, be determined by influence how viewers see the art is especially what sort of ethical maxim is used, but I think likely when the presenter also owns the art in that this art museum, with its interestingly com- question. In such cases, questions arise as to plex set of issues that crosses over and back whether there is any sort of moral or aesthetic between ethics and aesthetics, will not easily obligation to present art in such a way that it lend itself to a straightforward ethical or aes- endorses the content of the art itself, is respect- thetic assessment. ful of the intentions of the artist, or whether owners have carte blanche to present their art in any way they see fit. My ultimate concern here I. THE MUSEUM: A CASE STUDY is whether one has different kinds of moral obli- gations toward art and its presentation than one Bob Jones University is a conservative, nonde- does toward other kinds of things that one nominational Christian educational complex in owns. Using the Bob Jones University Museum Greenville, South Carolina. It includes not only and Gallery and its collection of as educational instruction for kindergarten through a case study, I will explore some issues sur- grade twelve, an undergraduate college, and a rounding the Museum’s presentation of the graduate school, but also its own press, a radio works in its collection in an attempt to deter- station, and a video production studio. It has mine whether there is a legitimate argument to made a name for itself in the national news over be made for the existence of special moral obli- the past several years for a number of political gations with regard to the presentation of art positions it has held, its restrictions on interra- that one owns. cial dating, and several other political and reli- In what follows, I identify certain moral con- giously charged issues. cerns and obligations that might be thought to The Bob Jones University Museum and hold in relation to the art that one owns. I argue Gallery opened in 1951 and moved to its current that because of the negative message that the location in 1965. When the Museum began to Museum provides about the content of the art- receive funding from Greenville County it had works it presents, it falls short of an ideal ethi- to adopt different rules than those of the larger cal standard that one might hold with respect to university. The Museum is the only part of the the ownership and presentation of art. There is University complex that receives public money, no real legal question about whether or not this and hence is subject to some public standards. particular institution can own and present this That the rest of the University does not accept particular collection of artworks. My concern is this money allows it not to have to abide by rather whether there are legitimate ethical federal law, which is required by institutions

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 62:3 Summer 2004 278 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism accepting federal money. This is why the insti- “blindness in a spiritually dark period in history tution remains academically unaccredited. and of the chosen way of error deliberately Thus, the institutionally prescribed rules for the taught by the Roman Church.”3 The Museum have come to be slightly different brochure also claims that the art fosters break- from the general rules of the University, and ing the Second Commandment against worship- University rules and practices have also ping idols, which they claim Catholics do by changed as a result. For instance, when the worshipping Mary generally as well as in a Museum began accepting public money, the wide array of other religious practices.

campus began to allow homosexuals on cam- Each room of the Museum contains any- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 pus. The rule prohibiting their access had previ- where from five to twenty-five paintings and ously been strictly enforced for both students artifacts. None of the paintings or artifacts has a and visitors. In addition, the University must label, identifying mark, or descriptive panel. also now allow women wearing slacks on cam- The artworks stand isolated from any informa- pus, but only if the women go directly to the tion that would influence or educate an Museum. Women wearing slacks found wan- observer. There are no maps or directions dering elsewhere on campus are asked to leave. printed on any of the free brochures. A map of For a final example, only recently have African- the gallery is printed in the one brochure avail- American students been allowed to attend Bob able for purchase. This brochure provides the Jones University, and although until very only listing of the artists represented in each recently there were strict rules against interra- room. Curiously, although artists are discussed cial dating (the punishment for which was by room, there is no clear indication which expulsion), these rules have currently been pub- paintings or artifacts belong to which artist. licly rescinded because of some surrounding Once the visitor is in the maze of the gallery, it controversy. is relatively difficult to orient oneself. Contrib- Except for the public money that goes to the uting to this effect is the fact that the whole Museum, the University claims that it is sup- Museum is dimly lit, more like a church than a ported entirely by the grace of God. In the Uni- place to really see artworks. The exhibits seem versity’s general welcome brochure, Bob Jones to be haphazardly put together, with no discern- III, the President of the University, writes that: ible connections among the art or artifacts within or between rooms. All one observes is This school is the work of the Lord God, and it exists the art on its own, without any context whatso- against all human odds. We don’t accept federal ever, unless one chooses to consult the literature money, so nobody can give the government credit. available at the front door.4 There are no denominational ties, so no organization The brochure available upon entering the gets the credit. There are no foundations or large reg- Museum is a short instructional manual titled ular donors, so no man gets the credit…God brought On Looking at Old Master Paintings. It the University into existence in 1927—and sustains it describes the proper religious attitude one until this hour. What is more, the campus is debt-free should take while viewing the collection. The by the grace of God.1 brochure claims that:

The Museum claims it houses the largest we must remember that up until the sixteenth cen- collection of religious art in the Western tury, all religious art in Europe was “Catholic” art. Hemisphere. It houses over 400 paintings and Some paintings produced during this time do not rep- religious and artifacts in thirty galleries, resent truth as the Bible sets it forth. They do not displaying Italian, Spanish, French, English, always depict Bible events but, perhaps more often, Flemish, Dutch, and German sacred art from the scenes based upon legends of the , so-called thirteenth through the nineteenth century, as “miracles”—unsubstantiated, traditional, not biblical. well as a roomful of Russian icons.2 Yet, most of its art is . The Museum It claims further that: presents its collection with the message that Roman Catholicism intentionally misinterprets The general tendency in Catholic art is to depict biblical scripture, and that its art displays a Christ as helpless and under human control. Only a Worth The Ethics of Exhibitions: On the Presentation of Religious Art 279 relatively small proportion of Old Masters show Church during the centuries covered by the Christ as the Miracle Worker, the denouncer of collection, it is not surprising to find that the hypocrisy and pretense, the risen Savior, the Judge of subjects portrayed are sometimes not those of the World. He is more often represented as the Child the infallible Word of God, but rather Mariol- in His mother’s arms, dependent upon her care or as a ogy, the cults of saints, monastic legends, and dead man on the cross or being anointed for burial similar themes.”6 I would not go so far as to and placed in the tomb. He is, as it were, an object say that the collection was purposefully under man’s control—not the God of glory to Whom acquired in order to show explicitly how the

man’s nature should be brought into subjection. Per- gets it wrong, but the art is Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 haps this is to be expected in light of the [Catholic] clearly used in such a way as to show the Mass. alleged doctrinal errors of the Catholic Church, a position supported in the literature The brochure concludes with the following that describes the collection. warning: It is curious that the warnings about these works of art are not posted in the Museum. If All good art may increase artistic appreciation, but one happened to enter it without consulting the only art that is biblical points men to . God’s On Looking at Old Master Paintings brochure, Word is truth (John 17:17), and we cannot risk our there would be no indication at all that those eternal destiny on anything less than the divine truth who designed the exhibit in the Museum did not revealed in God’s Word. A picture of the and endorse the content of the art it presents to the Child may be a lovely picture and a wonderful repre- public. Additionally, if one consults the Bob sentation of maternal love and of a child’s faith in his Jones University website,7 one finds informa- mother; but salvation is not in the Virgin. Indeed, it is tive, art-historical descriptions of the artists and not in the Baby. It is the Christ Who died on the several of the works of art that are exhibited in Cross for our redemption and rose again for our justi- the gallery. Perhaps the warning messages fication, Who brings us to salvation as we put our really are intended only for the students and trust in Him. You may enjoy and learn something the guards, whose extended exposure to the from the depiction of a religious legend, but you find artworks might inadvertently lead them to salvation only in Christ, Who was made to be misinterpret biblical scripture. sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.5 II. REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS These are the only guidelines made available by the Museum for its visitors and they are explicit As stated at the outset, my concern here is not as to how one should approach and experience so much about aesthetic considerations that may the artworks in this collection. be raised regarding the familiar problem of how A guard handbook, meant only for the museums choose to present their collections. I Museum guards (who are all male Bob Jones am concerned rather about moral obligations University students), is even more explicit regarding the presentation of works of art. In about what the collection represents and what this connection, let us ask first what kinds of the Museum’s purpose is in presenting the art reasonable expectations we have of museums in to the public. The guard handbook is espe- general. Different kinds of museums provide cially clear on the danger the guards might risk different kinds of experiences for different pur- from extended exposure to the art. In the intro- poses. Recently, museums have come under duction, Erin Jones, the director of the gallery, discussion not only as interpreters of certain instructs the guards that: “The Catholic saints periods of history or art but also as creators of and extra-biblical scenes remind you of the particular kinds of experiences. As museums people’s blindness in a spiritually dark period move from object-centered displays to more in history and of the chosen way of error delib- integrated and experiential kinds of exhibitions, erately taught by the Roman Catholic Church.” our expectations of them, educationally and aes- Further, she writes that “since religious art was thetically, are both threatened and redirected. virtually a monopoly of the Roman Catholic The trend in museum design is, in fact, moving 280 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism toward more varied and interactive kinds of bomber that dropped the atomic bomb that experiences. As Hilde Hein explains, museums ended World War II, in the fiftieth celebration are only just beginning to be “released from of the end of the war held at the Smithsonian their role as repositories,” what she calls “pris- Air and Space Museum. Deep historical, philo- ons for things,” and launched into their new sophical, emotional, and interpretive issues careers as “sanctuaries of meaning.”8 were raised over whether to display this plane Historian Susan Crane writes about the dis- as representing “the triumph of technology over tortion of expectation concerning museums, tyranny and the end of a brutal war” or “the

dealing especially with historical presentation. beginning of the nuclear age, and a new use of Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 She observes that what is really at stake when it technology for mass destruction and the obliter- comes to the trustworthiness of museums is ation of a civilian population.”11 The second how they function as memory institutions: example Crane discusses is the controversy museums explicitly and intentionally create not over a house in San Francisco that was inten- just viewing spaces but memory. She remarks tionally presented to the public as the home of that reading the museum guest book comments an actual 120-year-old man, when it turned out is often enlightening as to how people experi- that the house was not the person’s home at all enced and reacted to an exhibit, what they antic- but rather installation art.12 With the Enola Gay, ipated they would experience, and whether their Museum visitors wanted to see the plane in the expectations were fully met or satisfied. She way they believed it should be remembered. explains, “we are more familiar with concerns And everyone wants different accounts of that and complaints about the distortion of history or war. With the house, visitors felt duped when memory by interpretation; but it may be that the they found out that the house was not at all what distortion of expectation is what characterizes it was billed to be, but an explicit manipulation recent public debate about museums.”9 Museum of experience. visitors often do have certain justifiable I propose that the discomfort we experience expectations of institutions that call themselves in the case of the Bob Jones Museum is at museums, for example, that they will present a least partially due to having our expectations reasonably straightforward exhibition of a thwarted. One has to do a bit of work in order certain collection of art.10 That is, a collection even to begin to find what seem to be clear would be shown in such a way that an observer intentions stated in its literature and it mission. is allowed to see the artworks for themselves These clear intentions are often difficult to find, and the context in which they are shown is not or perhaps more to the point, they are easy to outwardly manipulative of the observer’s overlook. It seems reasonable that one should experience. be able to go to this art museum and expect A distortion of expectation may be at the root to see “the largest collection of religious art in of what appears to be wrong at the Museum. the Western Hemisphere” displayed as an art- Although Crane refers more directly to the historical museum collection. That is, a reason- “accurate” presentation and representation of able expectation for the presentation of such history and not of art or religion per se, she paintings in an art museum would be that they identifies an important point of concern for would be presented in an art-historical context, museum-goers. What we expect and how we respectful of the form and the content of the will be able to interpret and understand the art itself. If the collection had been housed and exhibit for ourselves is central to having posi- presented in a church, a reasonable expectation tive museum experiences. We almost always do might have been that the paintings would have have some expectation of what museum exhib- been presented in a religious context. It seems its will be like and what kinds of experiences reasonable to expect a relatively straight- we will have. When these expectations are forward, art-historical presentation of this col- thwarted, our interpretive paradigm is thrown lection. Even though Bob Jones University is off and we often place blame on the museum well known for its religious views, and one itself. Crane uses a number of wonderful exam- might expect that its religious position would ples, but two that I will mention here. The first affect the way it presents the art that it owns, concerns the display of the Enola Gay, the B-29 by putting its collection in a museum, identified Worth The Ethics of Exhibitions: On the Presentation of Religious Art 281 as such, I propose that an art-historical context acceptable to show these belongings of the Jews ought to be provided for the art. The Museum as religious artifacts (menorahs and torahs, exhibits its art in a way that confounds reason- for example) and creations that honored those able expectations for an art museum. who once owned them? What about a display of Two features of the Bob Jones University the same artifacts purporting to show how art collection stand out as especially signifi- simpleminded and unenlightened, or even evil, cant. First, its paintings, primarily by Italian the Jews were? The latter would surely cause and “Old Masters,” are moral indignation, more so than the intention to

painted by artists, many of whom the art honor their former owners. So, the intention of Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 world has acknowledged as being historically the presenters would seem to matter a great significant.13 Second, the paintings and other deal. Intention, curatorial or artistic, balances objects, such as and religious atop a slippery slope, however, since it is seem- icons, were once used for religious worship ingly impossible to determine or control and connote a particular religious sanctity, concerning the issues surrounding the making especially those having biblical subject of art and its presentation. It would seem to matter. Suppose that each of the works in the make an important difference in this case, how- Museum were replaced with scenes and por- ever, as it would if the Museum held these traits from local, unknown artists. The same Roman Catholic paintings in high esteem, using problems would not exist since these paintings them as testaments to the development of would not carry the art-historical cachet that religious art generally. attends the works in the collection. What if One possible analogue to the Bob Jones brochures were passed out claiming how the University Museum is the “Sensations” show paintings made by local artists, individually (October 2, 1999) at the Brooklyn Museum in and collectively, were clearly simpleminded New York City. In this case, a publicly funded and unenlightened? It would be rude and con- museum presented what were deemed by the descending to put together such a display with public to be obscene paintings of religious fig- such intentions, but it would not be considered ures. One important difference between the Bob questionable in the same way because the con- Jones case and the Sensations show is that the tent of the art is not being condemned as much Brooklyn Museum presented the art in a fashion as the skill of the artist. The Museum con- that was respectful of the artists regarding how demns the art itself and what it is intended to their artworks should be presented. The Sensa- sanctify. tions show did not pit the ideology of the Consider two possible analogies. The Nazis museum against the ideology of the artist, as, put together a museum display of the garments I have argued, the Bob Jones Museum does. and belongings of Jews who were killed during Nor was it clear that what the artists exhibiting World War II, called the Museum to a Dead in the Sensations show intended to express was People. It existed in Prague until recently. The what so offended some museum visitors. The museum was disbanded when tourism began to Museum, in contrast, is not being respectful of overwhelm the site. The artifacts have been the artists’ intentions. Respecting artists’ inten- distributed to four synagogues in Prague where tions does not require the museum to endorse they are used primarily in religious worship. the ideology of the works, but only to present The Nazis also put together an exhibit of what them in such a way that it does not intentionally they called “Degenerate Art” (in World War II degrade them. Museums function as a kind of Germany), which was shown as an example of “omniscient narrator” that can endorse, con- what was decadent, dangerous, and corrupt. demn, suppress, or remain neutral in regard to Much of this is now recognized as the great art the content of works of art they present. The of the period with artists represented such as Museum disparages the content of its religious Wassily Kandinsky and Max Ernst. This exhibit art by using Catholic art to illustrate what it generated huge public interest because of the takes to be Catholic error. Ultimately, what is at lure of the dangerous and subversive. In both of issue is not what an institution says about its art these cases, presentation and curatorial inten- but how a museum uses its art to express its tion would both seem to matter. Would it be views about the world. 282 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

III. OBLIGATIONS TO ART for their and religious inspiration. Imag- ine, however, how different it would be to By presenting their collection in the way they attempt to bracket the evil from the beauty do, with the accompanying materials pointing while watching Triumph of the Will at a Neo- out the religious dangers and thus restricting the Nazi rally and watching the same film during a kind of aesthetic experiences viewers have, the seminar dedicated to understanding how propa- Museum compromises the intrinsic value of the ganda breeds intolerance. Context would seem collection. Ronald Dworkin makes a further dis- to matter a great deal and these two kinds of tinction between things that become sacred experiences would indeed be different in kind, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 through association (flags as symbols) and and not just different in degree. Devereaux is things that become sacred through history right that the moral and aesthetic might be sepa- 14 (art). With art, he notes, “it isn’t what the rable, but not in all cases. painting symbolizes or is associated with but One of the most difficult and hotly debated 15 how it came to be that makes it valuable.” By questions in both aesthetic and ethical theory is not acknowledging the important artistic and over what part an artist’s intentions should play aesthetic tradition and religious context from in the perceiver’s interpreting and appreciating which the paintings in the Bob Jones University a work. The case study at hand, however, raises collection come, and that their intrinsic value a question about whether the intentions of the comes through this tradition, the Museum is museum director, representing the institution purposely denying the art’s intrinsic aesthetic that owns the art, are relevant to a visitor’s and religious significance. appreciation of art exhibited in a museum. Inter- As much as the relationship between aesthet- estingly, the director of the Museum, Erin ics and ethics has been discussed, especially Jones, is not trained as an artist, art historian, or 16 recently, the intersection of the ethical and museum curator. Her intentions, as expressed in aesthetic has still not been fully explored. The the museum and gallery catalogue and guard literature on this topic, however, spans a contin- handbook, are overwhelmingly concerned with uum, at one end of which is the idea that the religious and not aesthetic matters. She does not ethical and the aesthetic can be and should be deal with the aesthetic aspects of the works or appreciated separately and at the other end of the collection so much as she warns against which is the view that they are inseparable. what one might gain, or be distracted by, Mary Devereaux, for example, argues that the religiously. beautiful aspects of Leni Riefenstahl’s film, Tri- We come back to whether the art-historical umph of the Will, can be separated from the fact significance of this art museum’s collection and 17 that the film’s content is about something evil. its religious purposes is a legitimate basis for Devereaux explains that, without falling into moral concern. Are there legitimate moral rules disinterestedness, psychical distance, or simple against showing this art in this way because the formalism, “we can distance ourselves from— Catholic Church canonizes it, or that it is not that is, set aside—the moral dimension of the just that owning art produces moral obligations, work’s content while still paying attention to but that owning religious art produces religious that content—that is, the way in which the obligations? There does not seem to be any rule 18 film’s content figures in its expressive task.” (at least any rule that we follow) that says one In this way we can consider and appreciate both religion has to be tolerant of any other. In fact, the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the work globally and historically we are very bad at this. without dismissing it on the grounds that the But this is not just any religious art; it is prima- content is immoral. We can then also separate rily baroque and Renaissance era art. The fact Riefenstahl’s evil (or at least questionable) ethi- that it is religious simply reflects the broader cal intentions to glorify National Socialism worldview of early modern Europe, from where from the aesthetic intentions that are manifest in most of the art of that era came. Almost all art at the beauty of the cinematography. Similarly, the time engaged religious themes, even though one might be able to view the art in the Museum through the process of enlightenment the other while “subtracting the context” of the perceived themes of humanism, the modern individual religious intolerance, appreciating the artworks subject, and the rational self were beginning to Worth The Ethics of Exhibitions: On the Presentation of Religious Art 283 emerge. To say that some essential character- the supererogatory, that which is above and istic of the individual works is that they are reli- beyond the call of duty, which in this case gious is not to grant anything more than to say would be for a Protestant Christian organization that most art of the current period now engages to endorse the content of Catholic art. One secular themes. We might read religious art of might concede that the owners of the art have a the Renaissance and its themes as being no dif- moral right to present the collection in the way ferent from , which is defined they do, but still argue that it is a moral mistake by its production for the secular market. If reli- to do so. The way that the art is presented

gious intention then becomes the issue with insults the religious tradition from which the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 which we can assert that this art should be artworks come. Not all moral worries are moral treated differently, but then acknowledge that imperatives, but moral worries can and should religion was just one other aspect of human still be taken seriously. social formation at the time that it was created, In conclusion, there is no justifiable way to and that it is only incidentally religious and not resolve this as a purely deontological issue, essentially religious, then we have not made a other than with an appeal to religious tolerance, move further to make the needed argument. which would most likely not resolve the imper- That is, if religious intention or the religious ative. Since neither intention nor art-historical canon becomes the point of focus that can significance can be appealed to in order to force differentiate this collection from others, or can a moral imperative, we may be left with the stand as the basis for which we can rule the Museum as it is. Perhaps we need to be aware presentation of it morally unsound, the slope of not only the art we look at, but also conscious that the argument balances itself on has not of the context in which that art is presented, and given way. how our expectations of that context influence Ultimately, I have not identified a moral our experience. Allowing ourselves the shades imperative that the Museum has failed to live up of gray offered by the suberogatory might help to. I have, perhaps, uncovered a moral concern. us to appreciate the art and recognize the ques- Julia Driver recently drafted a concept that may tionable context without completely dissociat- help clarify (or at least label) the ethical issue I ing the ethical and the aesthetic.21 have identified with the Museum. She intro- duces the concept of the suberogatory, which are acts that are “bad to do, but not forbid- SARAH E. WORTH den.”19 She explicates the difference between Department of Philosophy moral dilemmas (where one is both required to Furman University do x and required to do not-x) and morally Greenville, South Carolina 29613 charged situations where “one’s options are between two alternatives, neither of which is INTERNET: [email protected] required—one option carries approval, the other 20 disapproval.” I think this can be quite helpful 1. Bob Jones University Welcome Brochure—Enter into in assessing the situation with the Museum. As a Miracle, 1996. the ethical slippery slope indicates, condemning 2. When I asked the museum curator, Erin Jones, exactly how many religious paintings and artifacts the museum the Bob Jones University Museum for the way owned she told me that it was a secret. it presents its collection and holding that it has 3. Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery Guard crossed an ethical or aesthetic line that makes Handbook, rev. August 2000, p. 3. the presentation of their collection morally 4. In a peculiar way, the presentation of the art offers unacceptable would be too strong of a condem- its visitors a “pure” aesthetic experience of the artworks themselves, since it does not attempt to influence the nation. In a number of different ways I have observer with any information about the historical, artis- shown how none of the other ethical or aesthetic tic, or religious significance of the artworks. Some might arguments would produce such a condemnation. argue this is a preferable way to present and appreciate But, claiming that it is a morally charged situa- art. 5. On Looking at Old Master Paintings, Bob Jones tion, and arguing that the choice the director of University Museum and Gallery. the Museum makes is suberogatory, might be a 6. Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery Guard fair assessment. The suberogatory is opposed to Handbook, pp. 3–4. 284 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

7. The Bob Jones University website is at http:// 14. Ronald Dworkin, Life’s Dominion (New York: www.BJU.edu. Alfred A. Knopf, 1993). 8. Hilde Hein, “Museums: From Object to Experience,” 15. Dworkin, Life’s Dominion, p. 74. in Aesthetics: The Big Questions, ed. Carolyn Korsmeyer 16. See especially Jerrold Levinson, ed., Ethics and (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998), p. 111. Aesthetics: Essays at the Intersection. (Cambridge: 9. Susan Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History in the Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Dorota Glowacka Museum,” History and Theory 36 (1997): 45. My italics. and Stephen Boos, eds., Between Ethics and Aesthetics: 10. I recognize that “reasonably fair,” “straightforward,” Crossing the Boundaries (State University of New York and their relatives “balanced,” objective,” and “accurate” Press, 2002). are all questionable in this context, but I also believe them 17. Mary Devereaux, “Beauty and Evil: The Case of

to be reasonable standards in this kind of discussion. Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will,” Ethics and Aesthet- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/62/3/277/5957576 by guest on 29 September 2021 11. Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History in the ics, pp. 227–256. Museum,” p. 59. 18. Devereaux, “Beauty and Evil,” p. 249. 12. This installation appeared in 1993 at the Haas-Lil- 19. Julia Driver, “The Suberogatory,” Australiasian lenthal House in San Francisco, an architectural historic land- Journal of Philosophy 70 (1992): 286. mark from the late-nineteenth century, where Fred Wilson 20. Driver, “The Suberogatory,” p. 287. created an installation entitled “An Invisible Life: A View 21. I would like to thank Susan Crane, Erik Ching, Eva into the World of a 120-Year-Old-Man.” Crane, “Memory, Dadlez, James Harold, Scott Henderson, Nick Radel, and Distortion, and History in the Museum,” pp. 50–51. David Weberman for helpful conversations about this topic 13. Artists represented are Luca Giordano, Jan Gossaert, and for very useful comments on early drafts of this paper. Francesco de Mura, Jusepe de Ribera, , Peter I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers Paul Rubens, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Francisco de from The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism for helpful Zurbarán. suggestions on a later draft of the paper.