Author: Dubin, Steven C.

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Abstract:

The author presents an overview of his book Arresting Images. The value and acceptability of art has become the subject of prolonged and painful public debates in venues ranging from the halls of Congress to television talk shows. Whether art inspires reverence and admiration or provokes disdain, the reaction to it in the late twentieth century is often a strong one. Contemporary art challenges values and believes and may stun, disturb, or even frighten some people.

Examples of such reactions abound, such as when the National Endowment for the Arts rescinded funds it had pledged to a New York City exhibit on AIDS, the Corcoran Gallery balked at mounting a retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs, and a music store owner and the rap music group 2 Live Crew were prosecuted in Florida for the alleged obscenity of a record album. It is imperative to look at the social climate in which these controversies have been generated in the past few years to understand why art has become a target, and which art.
(p. 255)

[For other articles from the symposium on Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil
 Actions in this issue of the The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society,
 see Arresting Images: Why We Need to Recast the Debate; Contemporary Art,
 Society, and Public Policies; and Public Funding for the Arts: The Chill After the
 Storm.]

CONTENTS
The State of the Nation.
Contemporary art and its enemies.
Content and context.
The nature of the disturbance.
Cycles of reception and the social construction of acceptability.
Censorship observed.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education