ARTISTS BANNED IN DALLAS

Artists are asking themselves whether it’s worth the trouble to enter the Texas Fine Arts Association Citation Show this month, despite the fact that the First National Bank, which is hosting the September 19 through October 3 exhibit, has never censored previous exhibitions.

Local artists are still doing a slow burn over an incident at last year’s annual city hall show, when two award-winning works were banished for displaying nudes. In April, five works were removed from the TFAA’s Eighth Annual Exhibition at the Plaza of the Americas for the same reason.

Ironically, two of the works thrown out by the Plaza’s management have been found innocent enough to appear in local newspapers and television broadcasts.

Bradley Bayoud, whose abstract color pencil drawing was banned from the Plaza’s show last year, said he had been warned about Dallas’ provinciality before he moved here from Washington, D.C.

“An editor of Art in America told me, ’Don’t go to Texas. You’ll be stifled,’” Bayoud said. “But I don’t understand it. Dallas has the potential of becoming the major art center of the Southwest, yet rich Dallas collectors go to New York and buy the works of Dallas artists there. Dallas is chasing its artists away.”