Anti-Trump Painting Removed From Art Exhibit In Montclair – Montclair, NJ Patch

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Gwenn Seemel knows that her painting will ruffle some feathers. She also doesn’t like the idea of “forcing a community” to see her work if they don’t want to look at it. But according to Seemel, it’s still a letdown that her art lampooning President Donald Trump was removed from an exhibit at the Montclair Public Library last weekend.

One has only to read the title of Seemel’s painting to understand why some people are upset: “Hello S*****, Available in a White House Near You! (Grab Him by His Pussy.)”

The controversy began earlier this month when the curators of the display, local nonprofit Studio Montclair, were hanging the pieces for a new exhibit, “Love and Fear,” which featured the work of Seemel and five other artists. The goal was to “depict the emotions of love or fear on a personal, social or cultural level.”

It was a success.

Within half an hour, Seemel’s anti-Trump painting began to make visitors “extremely uncomfortable.” It was taken down soon afterwards, Studio Montclair’s executive director Susanna Baker told Montclair Local.

“People just didn’t want to see those words on the wall,” Baker said, referring to a pink baseball cap on the president that reads: “Make America White Again.”

However, an uncomfortable level of fear is exactly what the artist was gunning for. “If you’re not afraid of Donald Trump, I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” Seemel says.

When asked to comment on Seemel’s painting, Nutley town commissioner and America Winning Coalition president Steve Rogers – who has been leading the charge for Trump’s 2020 campaign in New Jersey, was blunt in his assessment.

“It is an insult to true artists,” Rogers told Patch.

“There is no redeeming value to this display,” he said. “In my view, it’s a trashy amateur political poster obviously created by an individual who is in need of attention.”

Rogers added that he supports the First Amendment and he has no problem with allowing Seemel’s painting to be displayed… as long as pro-Trump art is also given a space, too.

LOVE, FEAR AND PRESIDENT TRUMP

According to Seemel – who said the library made the final call to remove her painting from the show – it isn’t the first time that “a public library has refused to show her art.”

But on Thursday, the director of the MPL disputed Seemel’s version of events and told Patch that the decision had nothing to do with the library.

“The artwork was hung by Studio Montclair,” Peter Coyle emphasized. “After it was hung, they chose to take it down. I don’t know the motivation behind it, but the library was not involved in the hanging of the artwork, and we were not involved in the removal of the artwork. That was purely a Studio Montclair decision.”

Coyle said that the library and its staff promote the concept of intellectual freedom and the exchange of “all kinds of ideas.”

“There isn’t anything in the painting that would cause me to say it couldn’t be hung,” Coyle opined. “It certainly is a controversial piece of artwork and it would evoke conversation and dialogue. And as a public library, we’re about promoting conversation and dialogue… it’s how people become educated and enlightened.”

Has the library ever had a display of pro-Trump artwork hanging on its walls?

According to Coyle, since he’s been director at the MPL, they have never been asked – or no artist has chosen to display – artwork in support of President Trump.

“I wouldn’t disallow it,” Coyle said. “It just hasn’t ever been a question.”

Coyle added that the library has been letting Studio Montclair hang artwork in the building for a long time, and although the nonprofit curates at least one show a year there, its members have never been censored or asked to take artwork down.

Susanna Baker of Studio Montclair provided the following statement to Patch about the nonprofit’s decision to remove the painting from the “Love and Fear” exhibit:

“We’ve been showing work at the Montclair Public Library for years, and have always been told that the policy of the library is to not display curse words or nudes. In the past, we have been asked to remove work for both those reasons. We greatly value our long relationship with the library, and have always respected and understood the parameters of showing work in a public place that caters to young children. The title of the piece on all our documentation was ‘Hello Kitty…’ and the curse words were not obvious to us in the images we had seen of the work prior to the installation. When we saw the word ‘s*****’ written many times on this painting, we realized that it needed to be removed because it violated the library’s policy of art in their public space. We didn’t discuss this decision with library personnel.”

Baker added that Studio Montclair does not censor artwork, but that its members are “sensitive to the restrictions of showing art in a public space.”

Seemel said that she doesn’t like the idea of “forcing a community to see my art” if they don’t want to look at it.

“That said, I don’t think the painting should have been removed,” Seemel said.

Watch the French-American artist speak about the symbolism in her controversial painting of Trump – as well as how it felt to have it removed from the exhibit – in a video below.

“Love and Fear” also features work by Amy Charmatz, Joanie Landau, Erik Peterson, Carol Radsprecher and Theda Sandford. It will be on display at the Montclair Public Library until April 29.

Seemel’s artwork is also on display as part of a separate exhibit at the FIAF Montclair, “Crime Against Nature.” The exhibit uses wildlife painting to illustrate the “true diversity of sex and gender that exists in the natural world.” It runs from April 12 to May 8, with an opening reception on Friday, April 12 from 6 to 7 p.m. (Learn more here)

Story continues after the video

ANTI-TRUMP ART IN NEW JERSEY

Seemel’s painting isn’t the only time in recent history that anti-Trump New Jersey residents have used art to express their displeasure with the president.

In September 2016, a naked Donald Trump statue greeted New Jerseyans on their morning commutes to the Holland Tunnel. The piece of protest art was part of a campaign that Indecline called “The Emperor Has No Balls,” and was allegedly stolen shortly after going on display.

Just a few weeks later, another anti-Trump piece of art greeted motorists and residents in Jersey City: a giant billboard depicting the then-Republican presidential candidate as comic book supervillain, the Joker.

Last year, a 20-foot-tall balloon depicting Trump as an angry, diaper-wearing, cell phone-carrying baby – one of several across the U.S. – took flight in Hunterdon County, raising a chorus of cheers and criticism in its wake.

YES, VIRGINIA… THERE ARE REPUBLICANS IN ESSEX COUNTY

While Essex County has acquired a reputation as a liberal stronghold – registered Democratic voters outnumbered their Republican peers by a whopping five-to-one prior to last year’s midterm election – the area also has its fair share of GOP members, conservatives and Trump supporters.

For example, the town is home to the Montclair Republicans organization, and has seen a heavy presence from the Essex County Republican Women’s Club (ECRWC).

“Yes, Virginia, there are Republican women in Essex County,” the ECRWC assured local GOP supporters prior to a membership drive in 2017.

And in nearby Nutley, Rogers is spearheading the charge in New Jersey to re-elect Donald Trump in 2020. “We’re turning the ‘blue wave’ into a puddle,” the former military intelligence officer recently quipped.

During the 2018 midterm election, there were also 193,070 unaffiliated voters in the county, as well as thousands of registered third-party members.

Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site here. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Don’t forget to visit the Patch Montclair Facebook page here.