BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH

Nan Goldin Slams Artforum for Firing Editor Over Israel Letter

“I have never lived through a more chilling period,” the photographer said.

Prominent artists have announced they will boycott Artforum after the publication fired its top editor for an open letter voicing support Palestinian liberation and calling for a ceasefire without mention of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel. “I have never lived through a more chilling period,” photographer Nan Goldin told The New York Times after the axing of editor David Velasco. Artist Nicole Eisenman added, “This war will not be done in my name. I resent these cowardly bullying and blackmail campaigns to distract everyone in the art world from the central demand of the letter, which was: cease-fire!” Some art collectors and advertisers raised hell after the open letter, and Artforum declared it was “not consistent with Artforum’s editorial process.”