Artists boycott British Art Show after Manchester gallery censorship row

Nineteen artists are still taking part, with some referencing the furore, such as Hardeep Pandhal, whose work is titled Headlines (Withdrawn Artist Reluctantly Participates In Exhibition).

“A number of artists have chosen to withdraw, and there were some very involved conversations around those tactics, and there were many different views,” Hammad Nasar, one of the show’s curators, said.

He said they had “made space for that withdrawal to be noticed” by highlighting it in the exhibition.

Mr Nasar added: “I’m a firm believer that the exhibition is a place where we have an opportunity to hold space, to give voice to issues. We want to use that space, and there are artists who have done that – who have done that directly, who have done that playfully, who have alluded to it.”

The row dates back to last summer’s exhibition at the Whitworth by investigative human rights group Forensic Architecture, which displayed a statement accusing Israeli police of “ethnic cleansing”, and said Palestinians were engaged in a struggle against “apartheid and colonisation”.

Several groups, including UK Lawyers for Israel, complained that the statement was “factually incorrect and dangerously one-sided”.

The statement was removed, but when Forensic Architecture threatened to close the exhibition as a result, the statement was reinstated with the addition of what the Whitworth described as “a space which gives voice to different perspectives”.

In February, the Guardian reported, external that Alistair Hudson, director of the Whitworth, had been “asked to leave” by the University of Manchester, which owns the gallery, after “a series of complaints” by UK Lawyers for Israel.

That sparked protests from those who accused the university of succumbing to pressure, and stifling artistic expression.

Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, said: “There was no external pressure to silence calls for Palestinian solidarity.

“There were objections to false allegations regarding Israel in an introductory statement to the Forensic Architecture exhibition, and to the gallery director’s false claim made to the university’s vice-chancellor that the accuracy of this statement had been checked.”