Teapot Tempest

Just as the presence of "X Delta," the abstract I-beam sculpture in front of Sanborn House, has raised a critical storm, a more representational piece questionable in either its "art" or its "tradition" - is creating its own kind of disturbance on campus.

The Hovey Grill murals in Thayer Hall, commissioned by the Class of 1914 in large part as a reaction to Baker Library's Orozco frescoes, purportedly illustrate Richard Hovey's "Eleazar Wheelock." Surrounded by bare-breasted maidens and drunken braves, the founder comes off far more bacchanalian than pious.

Larry Peiros '77, a member of the Committee on Equal Opportunity, has asked that the murals be removed or covered up, on grounds that they are "condescending to Native Americans and the College itself."

Robert McGrath, chairman of the Art Department and a firm supporter of "X Delta," called this censorship, questioning the authority of anyone to be "the social and aesthetic arbiter for the College." He conceded that certain features of the murals are patronizing but suggested the same is true of the frescoes.

Joan Smith of the sociology department disagreed: "The Orozco frescoes take a critical stance towards a moment in history while the Hovey murals celebrate an equally devastating period." Should they remain, she said, they ought to serve as a constant reminder of society's capability of "the most atrocious behavior towards other human beings. . .

In a column in The Dartmouth, Pat Scully '79 found the issue to be that "by destroying those pieces of art that we no longer find to be in harmony with societal trends, we not only break our ties with the art and philosophy of the past, but we also prevent the possibility of learning from them."

This fall the College went in for little controversies in a big way. Was there too much leisure-time about? Anyway, see page 34 for another view of the matter.

Goodbye to '76 and all that: "L'Amerique," an18th-century tribute to Miss America by an un-known French sculptor, was part of a recent"Curator's Choice" exhibit at Hopkins Center."