The Death of William F. Buckley, Jr.

Art Advocate | 2/27/2008 3:12 pm | Mad Art Scenes

Today conservative writer and commentator William F. Buckley died at the age of 82 of unknown causes, though he had long struggled with emphysema.

Buckley is perhaps best known as the TV host of "Firing Line," and the founder of National Review magazine. He was prolific as a writer, being an editor, novelist and columnist at various times in his life.

Unfortunately, Buckley was part of the conservative host that treated the onset of the world-wide AIDS epidemic as a moral issue rather than one of health, significantly impairing the response (was there one?) of the conservative Reagan administration to the disease. He was also famous, infamous maybe, for suggesting HIV positive people be tattooed on their rear ends to warn potential partners, bringing to mind the tattooing of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime. This is a position he held probably until he died, being he advocated it again in 2005.

Related to this forum on art, Buckley was no fan of Robert Mapplethorpe's work, helping the furor that erupted over "The Perfect Moment" exhibit which led to the canceling of the exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery and the unsuccessful prosecution of Cincinatti art director Dennis Barrie. In them he only saw "depictions of the kind of thing men do to each other while communicating AIDS (of which Mapplethorpe died)" (National Review 51.21). Again, instead of addressing the AIDS crisis as a major, world-wide health issue, Buckley helped to depict it as another aspect of the culture wars.

Always argumentative in life, let us hope William F. Buckley rests in peace.