Dana Shutz was notably silent in the debate (
an apology letter attributed to Shutz turned out to be a fake), but the controversy made several other art - world professionals also some of the most talked about figures of 2017: Hannah Black, the black Berlin - based artist who penned an open letter to the Whitney demanding the removal and destruction of the infamous painting, and Christopher Y. Lew and Mia Locks, the Whitney Biennial curators who included the painting in the show and defended their decision to keep it there.