From October 4 through January 5, New York’s Asia Society will feature an exhibition entitled “Contemporary Art in Asia: Traditions/Tensions.” One of the displays, House of Sin, depicts a drunken Catholic cleric holding a chalice (a dead boy appears next to him). The exhibition received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and was given prominent advertisement by Asia Society in its September-October newsletter.
In a letter to Asia Society president Ambassador Nicholas Platt, Catholic League president William Donohue made the following comment:
“Why this piece of work in being shown—indeed highlighted—by the Asia Society, I do not know. But I seriously doubt that a display that offended Asians would be accepted, much less advertised, by Asia Society.”
Donohue has asked Platt to respond to his query.
