In fall 1982 the Exhibits Committee of the university center brought to campus for display in the Gallery Concourse an exhibit of 35 lithographs and etchings of artist Phillip Pearlstein. This was not the first time Pearlstein had exhibited works on campus. A former student of the late C. Kermit Ewing, former head of the Department of Art, Pearlstein contributed two nude paintings to the 1965 Dogwood Arts Festival exhibition arranged by Ewing and held in the McClung Museum. (That exhibit also included works by Andy Warhol, Ben Johnson, and Roy Lichtenstein.)
Some students and faculty, and some vociferous townspeople found the university center concourse exhibit offensive. Nancy Cuskaden, a former Knoxvillian then living near Los Angeles and in town to attend her 16-year-old son’s piano contest, staged a verbal protest against the exhibit, saying that it represented a statement “against what motherhood and ‘Americanism’ stand for.”
On November 18 Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Howard Aldmon communicated to members of the Exhibits Committee and to Tim Reese, program adviser, the decision that the exhibit would be moved. They objected. The Commission for Women, the Faculty Senate, and the American Association of University Professors were among groups who also objected. In moving the exhibit to the McClung Museum, Chancellor Jack Reese indicated that it was not being moved as a form of censorship but was being moved to a location at which those who did not wish to see the exhibit would not have to do so. On Thanksgiving Day, Chancellor Reese decided to return the exhibit to the Gallery Concourse, and it was replaced on Monday, November 29.
On January 10, 1983, a class action lawsuit brought by UT Law Professor Fred LeClercq as attorney for plaintiffs Jacqueline Jones, Su Job, Georgia Nagle Mollie Swan, and Leslie Miller Jr. of the Exhibits Committee; Teresa Sisa of the Student Art League; and faculty Milton Klein, Lorayne Lester, and Errol Glustoff was dismissed, followed by a dispute over which party should pay the court costs. Aldmon was asked to pay the court costs, but the request was refused by UT. The issue remained until January 19, when the AAUP indicated it would pay.