CULTURAS IN VITRO
Uncovering Art in the Ache of Being Spied Upon: An artist sees beauty where others may not. In the case of Arnold Mesches, in his F.B.I. files.
Granted, there was pain: the realization that for 27 years, through the Red Scare of the 1950's, people Mr. Mesches thought to be friends had been spying on him. A lover; a student, who, it would transpire, was photographing him with a tiny camera in his tie; a buddy with whom he attended a funeral; his next-door neighbors, to whom he and his wife had given their stroller and baby clothes.
But there was something besides curiosity that made Mr. Mesches, lifetime leftist activist, request his files.