In Europe and North America, museums just can’t win. It takes wealthy people and large corporations to keep them operating, but left-wing artists and intellectuals don’t like wealthy people and large companies.
It’s a tough spot to be in, but the Design Museum in London might have seen this debacle coming. The museum this summer hosted an exhibition titled “Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18” featuring politically themed works of graphic artists, from Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster depicting Barack Obama to various Women’s March posters and a grammatically problematic sign reading “It’s not about me, it’s about we.” The exhibition purported to explain “how graphic design and technology have played a pivotal role in dictating and reacting to the major political moments of our time.” We’re not sure how something could play a pivotal role in dictating and reacting to a series of major moments, but we’re reasonably certain that if you’re a museum and you feature the creations of a lot of left-wing artist-agitators, you’re asking for trouble.
The trouble came when the artists featured in “Hope to Nope” heard, according to the New York Times, “that the Design Museum had rented its atrium to Leonardo, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, for a drinks reception in July.” They “expressed shock when they learned about the reception, and asked for their works to be removed from the museum.”
It must be a blissful world where such a thing is shocking, but the offended artists got more out of it than shock: Not only did they get their work exhibited; they earned media attention about the exhibition and called attention to their moral superiority. A hat-trick!
The graphic artists decided not just to ask that their works be removed; they showed up to remove them themselves. On the morning of August 2, a little posse of artists arrived at the museum holding placards bearing the words “THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE PATRONISED” and “#NopeToArms.” Evidently they were expecting a showdown, but the museum staff had politely packed up the items awaiting retrieval—whereupon the artists felt obliged to remove the artworks from their packages in order to display them to waiting photographers.
If you’re in London, the exhibition continues until August 12, sans the works of a few ungrateful twits.
