American Notes THE ARTS

Ever since the National Endowment for the Arts stirred a ruckus by funding an exhibition of photographs with explicitly homosexual themes by Robert Mapplethorpe, NEA Chairman John Frohnmayer has ducked public appearances. Last week he testified to a commission probing the NEA's grant policies. Claiming that a display that "leads to confrontation . . . would not be appropriate for public funding," he came up with an outrageous example. He suggested that a photograph of Holocaust victims displayed "in the entrance of a museum where all would have to confront it, whether they chose to or not," might not be fit for federal funding.

There is no doubt that the Holocaust was obscene in most any sense. But there is every reason for viewers to confront -- and remember -- its horrors, whether they wish to or not. If Frohnmayer can equate it with pornography, perhaps it is his views that should be reviewed.