We always say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Whether it’s destroying a blasphemous print, banning Robert Mapplethorpe from NEA funding, or censoring the David with a fig leaf, art presents some pretty easy flashpoints for scandal. Chief among them: nudity. An obvious lack of clothing rarely fails to be provocative, and such is the case with a certain Pittsfield, Massachusetts woman’s quest to allow women to go out in public, as men do, without shirts on.
Censorship
Posted inNews
Art Work Attacked in Colorado Museum
Kathleen Folden, 56, of Kalispell, Montana, has been charged with attacking an art work by California-based artist Enrique Chagoya with a crowbar while it was on display in the Loveland Museum Gallery in Loveland, Colorado. The 12-panel lithograph, according to the artist’s statement to FoxNews, depicts “no nudity, or genitals, or explicit sexual contact” and portrays “a dressed woman, a religious icon’s head, a man showing his tongue, and a skull of a Pope in the upper right corner of the controversial page.”
Critics of the work argue that it represents Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the son of God, as receiving oral sex from another man. FoxNews gives its own interpretation of the work and describes it as having “several images of Jesus, including one in which he appears to be receiving oral sex from a man as the word ‘orgasm’ appears beside Jesus’ head.” The attack took place last Wednesday at 4pm.
Posted inArt
John Cage “Silenced” on YouTube?
YouTube user AdamLore posted a video on his channel November 8, 2009 of John Cage performing his seminal piece 4’ 33”, a piece of music in which the famed minimalist composer placed a stopwatch on his piano and did nothing for the specified length of time. The twist to the Youtube version is that the audio has apparently been excised from the video, leaving John Cage’s performed “silence” as real, literal silence. The censorship is apparently courtesy of Warner Music Group, with a tagline below the video claiming “NOTICE This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled.” But is that the real story?
Posted inArt
Words and Pictures: A Controversy
Molly Norris has been told by the FBI that she needs to change her name and go into hiding because of a cartoon she drew making fun of Comedy Central for censoring South Park. I don’t know what to do about it, but I’m not going to respond by making a cartoon ridiculing Muslims. Maybe I’ll ridicule terrorists and their sponsors, but they just don’t listen to me. Back in May, Hrag wrote about Molly Norris and the stir it caused. I see I clicked Like, and its a good article, but I remember being bothered by Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, and not wanting to participate in it.
Posted inOpinion
Arizona School Demands Black/Latino Faces On Mural Be Whitened
The Arizona Republic reports, “A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school. The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity.”
Posted inOpinion
Cartoonists Vs. Islamic Iconoclasts: Have You Drawn Mohammed Today?
When people start telling other people what they can and cannot draw then we have a problem. Yesterday’s “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day!” made it clear that some religious fundamentalists need to be told to mind their own business and stop policing other people’s culture.
Posted inOpinion
Battle for the Seal of Virginia: Sanity 1, Fundamentalism 0
Remember that insane story about the Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli handing out new lapel pins to staff with the state seal covered up with an armored breastplate? Arts writer Tyler Green dreams up a snarky scenario where the Virginia attorney general’s disdain for female nudity reaches the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
Posted inOpinion
Is Street Photography Under Threat?
Writing for the Guardian, Sean O’Hagan is wondering how our recent laws governing privacy and surveillance are impacting the art form we’ve come to know as Street Photography.
Posted inOpinion
Complex Cultural Politics of Indian, now Qatari, Painter M. F. Husain
Indian painter Maqbool Fida Husain has accept Qatari citizenship but the issues around his story are complex. Often depicted as a straight-forward case of censorship, reporters often gloss over the fact that the painter, often called the “Picasso of India,” has chosen to live in a nation that censors far more than India.
Posted inNews
Police in Zimbabwe Shut Down Art Exhibit Exploring Violence
Last Friday, artist Owen Maseko was arrested by police for an exhibition at the National Gallery in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. This is the second exhibition closed by Zimbabwean authorities. Earlier that same week, a photo exhibition in Harare by Okay Machisa was shut down.