“It is depressing to see how you are once again being dragged through the mud. I’m still proud to call you a friend.” This is a line from an email exchange between David A. Ross, chair of the MFA Art Practice program at New York’s School of Visual Arts, and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This is just a small part of the disturbing chain of emails between the two men, made public with the latest release of Epstein files.
In their correspondence, they also discussed the concept of an exhibition focused on “girls and boys ages 14–25, where they look nothing like their true ages.” Epstein proposed the title “Statutory,” to which Ross seemed enthusiastic. Fortunately, following mounting pressure from students and alumni, Ross resigned from his position at SVA yesterday. His departure seems unlikely to be lamented.
For further details, read on. —Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief. David A. Ross, who served as the chair of the SVA MFA Art Practice Department for 17 years and was a former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, stepped down after the Department of Justice disclosed his extensive email conversations with Epstein. In a July 2009 email, following Epstein’s release from prison, Ross commented that Epstein’s punishment was “undeserved.”
