{"id":426380,"date":"2026-01-24T04:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426380\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:40:10","slug":"art-gallery-of-ontario-curator-resigned-after-failed-acquisition-of-nan-goldin-work-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426380\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Gallery of Ontario curator resigned after failed acquisition of Nan Goldin work – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leaked memo has revealed the resignations of a senior curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario<\/a> (AGO) and two volunteer members of a collections committee after the group voted against the acquisition of a work by Jewish American artist Nan Goldin<\/a> because of allegations of \u201cantisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although the AGO had planned to jointly purchase Goldin\u2019s moving-image work Stendhal Syndrome (2024) with the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) and Minneapolis\u2019s Walker Art Center, it pulled out in mid 2025 after its modern and contemporary curatorial working committee voted 11-to-9 against it. The move was unexpected, especially as the AGO already had three Goldin works in its collection. (The VAG and Walker Art Center proceeded with the joint acquisition.)<\/p>\n

Why did one of Canada\u2019s most important public museums decide against acquiring a work by an enormously influential artist and activist who was deemed, in 2023, to be the most powerful person in the art world? According to an internal memo by AGO director and chief executive Stephan Jost that was obtained by The Globe and Mail<\/a>, some committee members alleged that remarks Goldin made in a 2024 speech<\/a> at Berlin\u2019s Neue Nationalgalerieabout her \u201cmoral outrage at the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon\u201d were \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cantisemitic\u201d. Speaking at the Berlin opening of her traveling retrospective, Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well, the artist also said that to call anti-Zionism antisemitic was a \u201cfalse equivalency used to maintain the occupation of Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

But according to the memo, committee members who were in favour of acquiring Goldin\u2019s work disagreed. In their view, the artist\u2019s remarks were not antisemitic, with some adding that \u201crefusing the work because of the artist\u2019s views was censorship\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the Globe, two people \u201cwith direct knowledge of the situation\u201d indicated that John Zeppetelli, the AGO\u2019s curator of modern and contemporary art, who had lobbied for the acquisition, eventually resigned because of the incident. Zeppetelli, who is still working with the Toronto museum as a guest curator, co-organising an upcoming exhibition of work by the Italian artist Diego Marcon, did not respond to The Art Newspaper\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Two members of the modern and contemporary collections committee subsequently resigned from their volunteer roles as well, according to the Globe, because of issues around the nixed Goldin acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine months ago, we were excited about the acquisition,\u201d Goldin tells The Art Newspaper. \u201cThen we were told that the board had met and one person had blocked the sale\u2014a very persuasive Zionist.\u201d She adds that she only learned this week that 11 committee members had voted against the acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so chilling that people are still opposing free speech,\u201d Goldin says. \u201cAt this point the whole world should be aware of what\u2019s happening in Palestine and at the very least compassionate. It\u2019s crazy that people are still clinging to the conflation of Zionism with antisemitism.\u201d She admits she was \u201cshocked\u201d that \u201csomething like this would happen in Canada. I know [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] is active in the US, but I didn\u2019t expect this here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nan Goldin, Stendhal Syndrome, 2024 (video still) Jointly owned by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Purchased with funds from the Curators\u2019 Council Fund for Women Artists and the Jean MacMillan Southam Fund, Image: \u00a9 Nan Goldin, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian<\/p>\n

What Goldin finds even more disturbing, she says, is \u201call the people we don\u2019t know about who are being blocked\u2014artists being shut down that we don\u2019t know about\u201d.<\/p>\n

After she signed a 2023 open letter <\/a>supporting Palestinians, she says she received emailed death threats in Hebrew and lost significant revenue at her next exhibition. Still, Goldin continues to speak out on Palestine. \u201cI couldn\u2019t sleep at night if I didn\u2019t,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As Goldin sees it, Zeppetelli \u201cis the hero in all this\u201d. She adds: \u201cMany people aren\u2019t speaking out for economic reasons, and they have a right to be scared. But it would be less scary if more people spoke out.\u201d She says she was unaware of the abrupt departure<\/a> of the AGO\u2019s Indigenous curator Wanda Nanibush in 2023, allegedly over her stance on Palestine, followed months later by the departure of Taqralik Partridge<\/a>, an Inuk poet, performer and editor who was serving as associate curator of Indigenous art.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the AGO acknowledged that the institution initiated a review of the committee meeting in which Goldin\u2019s work was discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AGO\u2019s acquisition practices are thorough, well-documented and publicly available<\/a>,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Art Newspaper. \u201cPolitical views are never intended to be part of the process. In this instance, personal political views did surface. As a result, the AGO engaged an independent governance expert to review matters relating to that meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that a subsequent \u201creset\u201d would ensure that \u201csuch discussions are focused on an artwork\u2019s alignment to the AGO\u2019s acquisition criteria, are healthy and productive, and welcome multiple perspectives\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the VAG, which is currently exhibiting the piece<\/a> (until 6 April), it draws on the metaphor of the Stendhal Syndrome\u2014\u201ca psychosomatic condition of dizziness, confusion or even hallucinations triggered by exposure to intense beauty\u201d\u2014through the juxtaposition of Goldin\u2019s original portrait photographs with images from art history. Goldin fans have been flocking to see the piece since its November opening at the VAG.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents\u00a0the first major presentation of Nan Goldin\u2019s work in Vancouver, and we are proud to share it with audiences in Canada,\u201d a VAG spokesperson tells The Art Newspaper.\u00a0\u201cThe gallery is committed to presenting a wide range of artistic voices and supporting artistic freedom of expression, while fostering open and respectful cultural dialogue. Nan Goldin\u2019s practice has long explored themes of love, grief, beauty, activism and the realities of lived experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leaked memo has revealed the resignations of a senior curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[202840,228,226,227,229,88,202841,6359,171242,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-426380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-gallery-of-ontario","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-museum-acquisitions","15":"tag-museums-heritage","16":"tag-nan-goldin","17":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}