Art Exhibitions

The director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, bowing to threats by curators to close a photography show after a key piece was removed on grounds it was pornographic, restored the disputed work Monday. The formal closure demand had been made earlier Monday by the Addison Gallery of American Art, at Philips Academy in Andover, Mass.

When "Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries" burst upon the art scene in 1990, the blockbuster exhibition attracted almost as much critical static as popular approval.

ART With his instantly recognizable style and near epic status in the art world for many decades running, the return of Chuck Close to Los Angeles is suitably grand. Blum & Poe will mount an exhibition of the acclaimed artist's works — not only his first exhibition with the gallery but also his first one-person show in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years — which will occupy three downstairs gallery spaces and will feature portraits of artists Kara Walker, Laurie Anderson and Zhang Huan, musician Paul Simon and arts patron Agnes Gund, as well as the latest batch of Close self-portraits.

Hundreds of Vietnamese Americans demonstrated Saturday outside a provocative art exhibit in Santa Ana that had featured Communist symbols that protesters claimed mocked their painful experiences as political refugees. The protest -- joined by people bused in from as far away as San Jose -- came the day after one of the works was defaced with red paint and the owners of the building ordered the exhibit closed, saying the organizers lacked the proper business license.

April is the cruelest month? Not for art devotees. Gearing up for the peak travel season, here are some notable openings: * London--"Art Nouveau: 1890-1914" is billed as the largest, most comprehensive exhibit of that style since its heyday. The more than 400 objects include paintings, sculpture, furniture, graphics and jewelry by the likes of Aubrey Beardsley, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Rene Lalique. Opened last week; ends July 30. Victoria and Albert Museum. Telephone 011-44-20-7942-2000.