Archive Surrounding Controversial Fort Worth Painting Goes on Show

Highlights of New York City Circa 1960: Works From the Collection of Robert A. Ellison Jr. at the Schoelkopf Gallery in New York include a group of letters, postcards, telegrams, and public statements documenting the 1959 controversy surrounding a nude painting by Texas artist Ben Johnson on view as a part of the exhibition.

The work was displayed in the window of Robert A. Ellison Jr.'s Fort Worth gallery in a window facing a busy downtown street corner. The Fort Worth Art Association had previously declined to exhibit the piece on the basis of its supposed vulgarity. Ellison vowed to show the work after this, insisting: “I’ll make a protest for aesthetic freedom.”

The painting sparked an intense public reaction. The archive includes letters from outraged citizens, correspondence from the local Ministers Association demanding the work's removal, telegrams exchanged between Ellison and Johnson, and passionate defenses of artistic freedom from the gallery's supporters.

Some correspondents denounced the painting as immoral and offensive to community standards, while others criticized censorship efforts and applauded Ellison for refusing to back down. The material offers a glimpse into the public response to modern art at the dawn of the 1960s. 

The correspondence is currently on view as part of the exhibition which brings together paintings and works on paper created by a network of 15 artists in the years surrounding 1960, centered on the collection of Robert A. Ellison, Jr., and the vibrant downtown Manhattan art scene clustered around Tenth Street.