Tom Gregg, Bad Apple, oil on panel
Until recently the Dykes Library University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City hosted a series small changing exhibits. It appears that the program was suspended because someone took offense at the latest (and apparently last) exhibition, Tom Gregg: Unsold. The show was removed before its scheduled closing date and the exhibitions program was discontinued immediately and without notice. As the title suggests, Unsold featured a few paintings of Gregg’s that hadn’t sold at shows in New York and Los Angeles at the George Billis Gallery. The unsold work tended to be a little darker, images of rotten apples, hand grenades, pistols etc. and the working assumption is that these paintings prompted the library’s decision.
Curator Melissa Rountree contacted the National Coalition Against Censorship, who drafted a petition letter to be sent to the University of Kansas. Anyone interested in adding their name to the letter can contact the NCAC at ncac@ncac.org, just include the phrase “Kansas Letter” in the subject line, your name and occupation in the body of the email.
Here’s a link to our interview with Tom Gregg from last year. I’ve posted a few more images from the exhibit and the full text of the letter after the cut.
MW Capacity 