AGO rocked by resignations after failed Nan Goldin acquisition

The Art Gallery of Ontario is reckoning with the resignations of a senior curator and two volunteer members of a collections committee after the group narrowly voted to not acquire a work by Nan Goldin over accusations that the Jewish-American photographer’s views are antisemitic.

Ms. Goldin, a celebrated photographer and a long-time activist, used a late 2024 speech at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie to share her “moral outrage at the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.” She levelled criticism at Israel for the tens of thousands of deaths reported since it launched its war on Hamas in 2023, after the group’s Oct. 7 attacks that left 1,200 dead in Israel and 251 others taken as hostages.