Arthur Evans This gallery was prepared by the staff of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, for an installation by the Critical Art Ensemble that was to have been part of an exhibition that opened last May at the museum. The work was never completed because materials for it were confiscated from CAE artist Steven Kurtz's house three weeks earlier by the FBI. Click photo for larger image.

A big-name art auction to be held at the chic Paula Cooper Gallery in New York April 17 to benefit artist and educator Steven Kurtz is the latest in a sequence of events that would read more like a performance strategy than real life were the implications not so sobering.

Among many world-class contemporary artists who have contributed work to the auction are Richard Serra, Hans Haacke, Kiki Smith, Chris Burden, Cindy Sherman, Ann Hamilton, the Acconci Studio, Mike Kelly, Sol LeWitt, William Pope L, Vic Muniz, Glenn Ligon and Mel Bochner (a CMU alumnus and co-designer of an art garden recently installed on the campus). Also represented are Paul Chan, Jeremy Deller, Rachel Harrison and Julie Mehretu, all of whom exhibited in the last Carnegie International.

Kurtz, who was a professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University from 1995 to 2002, now holds that position at the State University of New York, Buffalo, and is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble. The latter, according to its Web site, is "a collective of five artists of various specializations dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory."

As readers may recall, Kurtz became the tragic figure in a cockamamie drama May 11 when police investigating his wife's death (of natural causes) discovered biological material in his home, which triggered a probe by the FBI. Pulled into the investigation was Robert Ferrell, a professor of human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, who is accused of providing the material to Kurtz.

One could understand caution in a post-9/11 climate, but supporters feel it should have been a matter of "case closed" once tests revealed that the bacteria in question were harmless and verified Kurtz's intent to use them as part of an artwork. Kurtz and Ferrell have previously collaborated on and exhibited biotechnology-themed artworks without raising concern, according to the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund, an ad hoc group of supporters who organized the auction.

But the FBI continued to pursue Kurtz and Ferrell, who are now facing federal charges of mail fraud and wire fraud, which carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

The FBI confiscated material from Kurtz's house, part of which was pertinent to an installation, "Free Range Grains," that was to have appeared in the exhibition "The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere" at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, (MassMoCA) which opened May 30. The piece, according to a September article in Artforum magazine, "would have offered Mass MoCA visitors a chance to test their own food for the presence of genetically modified ingredients."

Instead, the gallery stood partially completed with a sign that explained the circumstances surrounding the work.

"Overall, the reaction to the whole thing was very positive," says Katherine Myers, Mass MoCA director of marketing and public relations. "We're here in liberal Massachusetts, so people definitely tended to be sympathetic to CAE and what was going on with that." And the press, including local television news coverage, turned out as never before.

Myers points out the strange coincidence of the work, which started out to be about one thing, food testing -- "and that was going to be very appropriate for the 'Interventionists' -- and then, obviously, it ended up being about something completely different, about this idea of artists' rights and government overstepping.

"It ended up still fitting in really well with the exhibition, but being a totally different thing, another very current part of the exhibition, really timely." Myers says that when she led tour groups through the show, which closed last month, that she would take them into the preceding installation by The Atlas Group -- "which creates archives for fake people. They're elaborately done and look very real, but are actually fake." Then she'd take them to the CAE site and say, "This looks fake, but it's actually real."

MassMoCA assistant curator Nato Thompson says, "Given the gravity of the situation facing Steve Kurtz, it's difficult to see a bright side," but if there is one it's the way this incident has been able to galvanize the art community to address broader "issues that face our culture."

Helen Molesworth, one of the co-organizers of the auction, says that the list of "successful and critically acclaimed artists [who have contributed artworks] attests to how strongly people in our community feel about this case." Many of the artists, she points out, are traditional and don't make art like Kurtz's. Still, they want to show support for "an art practice that's deeply experimental." What Kurtz does is not being recognized as "art proper," Molesworth says, and that makes it particularly vulnerable to prosecution.

Molesworth says that the idea for the auction began when "a group of us sat down and made up a list, basically off the top of our heads. It really mushroomed. Almost everyone able to, donated work."

She says people are involved so passionately "because we feel that artists' and intellectuals' First Amendment rights ... are in serious jeopardy under this administration ... It's so important, for all of us, that our abilities to be creative thinkers is not hampered by government."

Auction viewing will be from 2 to 5 p.m. April 17 at the Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 W. 21st St., New York. A live and silent auction will follow from 5 to 7 p.m., for which the emcee will be Wallace Shawn.

Today, a list of artists and images will be posted at www.caedefensefund.org.