American Notes THE ARTS

* John E. Frohnmayer, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, learned something last week about the art of compromise. Earlier, Frohnmayer had announced that he was withdrawing a $10,000 grant to support "Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing," a planned New York City exhibition of artworks inspired by the AIDS crisis. The show was "political rather than artistic in nature," Frohnmayer said. He cited a catalog essay that denounced North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and California Congressman William Dannemeyer, both vocal opponents of gay rights, and New York's John Cardinal O'Connor.

The decision followed last summer's dispute over two shows supported by the NEA and the subsequent action by Congress forbidding the endowment to promote "obscene" art. By snubbing the AIDS exhibit, Frohnmayer appeared to be signaling that the NEA would now shy away from controversial work. That led to a storm of criticism from the art world and a decision by conductor Leonard Bernstein to refuse a White House offer of a 1990 National Medal of Arts. Just hours before the show was to open last week, Frohnmayer reversed himself, agreeing to release the grant. The offending catalog, however, is being funded separately.