NATION IN BRIEF : OHIO : Mapplethorpe Said to Be Like Van Gogh

A museum curator, testifying at the obscenity trial of the Cincinnati Center for Contemporary Arts and its director, Dennis Barrie, compared Robert Mapplethorpe to Vincent Van Gogh. At issue are five photographs depicting sadomasochistic homosexual acts and two showing children with exposed genitals. Robert Sobieszek, curator of the Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., testifying by videotape, said Mapplethorpe’s depiction of homosexual acts was, in effect, an autobiography. “It’s not unlike Van Gogh painting himself with his ear torn off,” he said.