9. Alternative Spaces, the NEA, and Censorship.pdf - Course ...

Thursday, 17 January 13 

ALTERNATIVE SPACES, THE NEA, AND 

CENSORSHIP 

Dr Matthew Bowman

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was set up in 1965 during the presidency 

of Lyndon B. Johnson. As Brian Wallis remarks, it was intended “to aid state policy by 

helping to achieve three specific ideological goals: to strengthen a sagging sector of the 

economy, to promote American cultural values abroad, and to make culture available to all 

Americans at home.” 

From 1969, during Richard Nixon’s presidency (1969-1974) the NEA budget increased 

from $11 million dollars to $114 million in 1977. 

Thursday, 17 January 13

Reagan initially struggled and was unable to implement the considerable reductions he 

planned for art funding—in the financial year 1981, $175 million was allocated for the 

NEA, and for 1982 Reagan wanted it dropped to $88 million, but Congress disagreed and 

allocated $143 million. Failing to cut the NEA’a allowance, Reagan instead appointed 

cultural conservatives like Frank Hodsoll to prominent positions, set tighter restrictions on 

the availability of funding, and scrutinized awards that had already been given. 


“No one at the NEA is saying that alternative spaces are slated en masse for some 

Endowment scrap heap. But no one is defending them either.” 

—Gerald Marzorati, “The Arts Endowment in Transition,” 1983


Group Material (1979-1996), Americana, Whitney Biennial, 1985 

Group Material (1979-1996), DAZI BAOS, Union Square, New York,1982


Guerrilla Girls


During the 1980s new art collectives sprang up 

in New York that sought to challenge through 

art and design social issues such as poverty, 

homophobia, gender inequality—all of which 

became important arenas of confrontation in 

the deeply conservative, Republican-led USA. 

These confrontations have come to be known 

as “the culture wars.” 

Collectives include Group Material, ACT-UP, the 

Guerrilla Girls, and Gran Fury 

ACT-UP poster


It is patriotic to have the AIDS test and be negative (Dr Cory Servaas) 

We used to hate faggots on an emotional basis. Now we have good reason 

(Anonymous surgeon) 

AIDS is God’s Judgment of a society that does not live by His rules. (Jerry 

Falwell). 

Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm, to 

protect common needle users, and on the buttocks to prevent the victimization 

of other homosexuals (William Buckley). 

Let the record show. . . The Pentagon spends in one day more than the 

government spent in the last five years for AIDS research and education. 

By Thanksgiving 1981, 244 known dead . . . AIDS . . . no word from the President. 

By Thanksgiving 1982, 1,123 known dead . . . AIDS . . . no word from the President. 

. . . 

By Thanksgiving 1987, 25,644 known dead . . . AIDS . . . President Ronald Reagan: “I 

have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to determine as 

soon as possible the extent to which the AIDS virus has penetrated our society.”


Keith Haring (for ACT UP), Ignorance = Fear, 1989


Donald Moffett 

(1955; for ACT UP) 

He Kills Me, 1987


Adverts produced by the art collective Gran Fury, 1989-90


Dear Mr Christiansen, 

The President of the International Banana Association replied to this video with the following. 

In this program, a banana is used as a substitute for a human penis in a demonstration of how condoms are used. 

I must tell you, Mr Christiansen, as I have told representatives of WETA, that our industry finds such a usage of our product to be 

totally unacceptable. The choice of the banana rather than some inanimate prop constitutes arbitrary and reckless disregard for 

the unsavory association that will be drawn by the public and the damage to our industry that will result. 

The banana is an important product and deserves to be treated with respect and consideration. It is the most extensively 

consumed fruit in the United States, being purchased by over 98 percent of households. It is important to the economies of 

many developing Latin American nations. The banana's continued image in the minds of consumers as a healthy and nutritious 

product is critically important to the industry's continued ability to be held in such high regard by the public and to discharge its 

responsibilities to its Latin American hosts. 

Mr Christiansen, I have no alternative but to advise you that we intend to hold PBS fully responsible for any and all damages 

sustained by our industry as the result of the showing of this AIDS program depicting the banana in the associational context 

planned. Further, we reserve all legal rights to protect the industry's interests from this arbitrary, unnecessary, and insensitive 

action 

Yours very truly, 

Robert M. Moore 



Félix González-Torres 

(1957–1996) 

Untitled (Portrait of Ross in 

L.A.), 1991. 

ideal weight: 175 lb

Felix Gonzalez-Torres 

(1957-1996), 

Untitled (Placebo), 

1991 



Bed, 1992


This public-commissioned was controversial 

from the outset. In a court hearing was held 

in 1985, in which 122 people testified in 

favour of keeping the work, and 58 to 

remove it. Because the work was sitespecific, 

Serra argued in court that "To 

remove the work is to destroy it.” A jury 

decided 4 against 1 to have the work 

removed. The work was finally removed over 

night in March 1989. 

Richard Serra (1939) 

Titled Arc, 1981



‘[In April 1989] the American Family Association (AFA) sent out 

one million copies of a letter denouncing an art work entitled Piss 

Christ (1987) by Andres Serrano. The work, a large-scale color 

photograph of a crucifix submerged in a luminous bath of urine, had 

been awarded a $15,000 prize by the Southeastern Center for 

Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, an institution 

partially funded by the NEA. Shortly after receiving the AFA's letter, 

Republican Alfonse D'Amato ripped up an exhibition catalog 

featuring Piss Christ on the floor of the Senate. In cheering on 

D'Amato's gesture, Helms announced, "The Senator from New York 

is absolutely correct in his indignation.... I do not know Mr. Andres 

Serrano and I hope I never meet him. Because he is not an artist, he 

is a jerk."’ 

Andres Serrano (1950) 

Piss Christ, 1987

Dear—— 

The enclosed red envelope contains graphic descriptions of homosexual 

erotic photographs that were funded by your tax dollars. I’d never send you the photos, 

but I did want you to know about the vile contents of your tax funded material. You ‘ll be 

as outraged as I am when you open the envelope. . . . IMPORTANT, I encourage you to 

exercise your freedom immediately by destroying the vulgar information about the 

photographs 


Rev. Pat Robertson, October 29 1989.

1. A photo of a man with a bull-whip inserted in his rectum. This piece of “art” is listed as a selfportrait 

of the photographer. 


2. A close-up of a man with his pinkie inserted in his penis. 

3. A photo of a man urinating in another man’s mouth. 

4. A photo showing one man holding another man’s genitals. 

5. A photo of a man of a man’s arm (up to the forearm) in another man’s rectum. 

6. A photo of young pre-school girl with genitals exposed. 

7. A photo of naked children in bed with a naked man. 

8. A photo of a man in a suit exposing himself. 

9. A photo of a man with his genitals on the table.

1. A photo of a man with a bull-whip inserted in his rectum. This piece of “art” is listed as a selfportrait 

of the photographer. 


2. A close-up of a man with his pinkie inserted in his penis. 

3. A photo of a man urinating in another man’s mouth. 

4. A photo showing one man holding another man’s genitals. 

5. A photo of a man of a man’s arm (up to the forearm) in another man’s rectum. 

6. A photo of young pre-school girl with genitals exposed. 

7. A photo of naked children in bed with a naked man. 

8. A photo of a man in a suit exposing himself. 

9. A photo of a man with his genitals on the table.


Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), 

Self-Portrait, 1978




Jim, Sausalito 1977


Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) 

Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979 




Dominick and Elliot, 1978



Irises, 1978 

(Y Portfolio)


Rose, 1977 

“I don’t think there’s that much difference between a 

photograph of a fist someone’s ass and a photograph 

of carnations in a bowl” 

Robert Mapplethorpe, 1979 



Two Tulips, 1984 


“I thought . . . that people could see here’s a flower. It’s perfectly composed, perfectly lit, 

[or here’s a beautiful portrait of a society lady, whatever, you know, a celebrity. Then you 

see a cock and it’s a different subject, same treatment, which is what it’s all about—my 

eyes as opposed to someone else’s. And I thought that it would make people see things 

differently. But what happened is that they took the cocks and fused them onto the 

others instead of the other way around. They forgot that the other pictures were even 

there.” 

Robert Mapplethorpe, 1981, cited in Richard Meyer, Outlaw Representation: Censorship 

and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Art. 



Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)



Z portfolio, 1981



Ajitto, 1981



Ken and Lydia and Tyler, 1985


Patti Smith, 1976 




Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1976


Robert Mapplethorpe 

(1946-1989), 

William Burroughs, 1979


The Perfect Moment 

controversy, 1989 

The Perfect Moment was an retrospective 

exhibition organized by the Institute of 

Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and shown 

there in 1988. The NEA awarded $30,000 to 

the ICA to help with exhibition costs. 

The exhibition was due to travel to 

Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 

summer of 1989, but the Director cancelled 

at the last moment due to debates over the 

NEA at the time. No money had been 

awarded to the Corcoran by the NEA. 

When the exhibition travelled to 

Contemporary Art Center in April 1990. 

Upon its opening, the Director of CAC and 

CAC were indicted on obscenity and child 

pornography charges.


Left: Robert Mapplethorpe, Jesse McBride, 1976 

Top: Judy Linn, Jesse McBride, 1990 

‘In a July 1989 fundraising solicitation, the American Family Association 

describes this portrait as "a shot of a nude little boy, about eight, 

proudly displaying his penis" and further claims that the photograph was 

produced "for homosexual pedophiles."The AFA does not reproduce 

the portrait it so graphically describes. If it did, viewers might notice that 

Jesse McBride appears rather matter of fact about his nakedness and no 

more self-conscious-or proud-of his genitals than of any other part of 

his body. The AFA's letter fixates on the boy's penis rather more 

insistently than does either Mapplethorpe or Jesse McBride.’ 

Richard Meyer, “The Jesse Helms Theory of Art”


Madonna, Like a 

Prayer


Madonna, 

Sex, 1992


The New Philistines?


BANK 

Zombie Golf 

1995


BANK, 

Zombie Golf 

1995


BANK, Fuck Off, 1996. 

They write they they enjoyed the 

‘ridiculous adolescence’ of their title 

for this installation - this invitation to 

a private view suggests that “rock” is 

more interesting than the communist 

theorist Leon Trotsky’s text 

republished in Art in Theory.


BANK: ‘Stop Short Changing Us. 

Popular Culture is for Idiots. We 

Believe in Art, (1998). 

BANK were critical of the art/popular culture 

binary. They were critical of the view that art 

was ‘elitist’ and therefore bad, and pop culture 

was ‘democratic’ and therefore good. This 

division is explored in their exhibitions and 

publicity materials.


Damien Hirst 

(1965) 

The Physical 

Impossibility of 

Death in the 

Mind of 

Someone 

Living, 1991


Sam Taylor-Wood (1967), 

Fuck, Suck, Spank, Wank, 1993 

Slut, 1993


Sarah Lucas (1962), 

Sod you Gits, 1990

Sarah Lucas 

Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab, 

1992 



Sarah Lucas (1962), 

Au Naturel, 1994


Tracey Emin (1963) 

Everyone I’d Ever Slept With, 1963-1995

Gillian Wearing (1963) 

Signs that say what you want them to say and not 

Signs that say what someone else wants you to say, 

1992-3 



Gillian Wearing (1963) 

Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs 

that say what someone else wants you to say, 1991-92

Upon its exhibition at Sensation, an exhibition at the Royal Academy 

in London, 1997, Harvey’s Myra elicited controversy and was 

attacked twice by members of the public. Four members of the RA 

resigned due to the painting’s inclusion. Winnie Johnson, a mother of 

one of Hindley’s victims, asked for the painting to be removed. After 

her request was denied, she joined protests outside the Royal 

Academy. Even Hindley wrote from prison asking the painting to be 

taken down, contending that the painting was emotionally harmful 

to the families whose children she participated in killing. When 

Sensation travelled to New York in 1999, the painting generated less 

controversy; instead, it was Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary that 

garnered public anger. 


Marcus Harvey (1963) 

Myra, 1995


Rachel Whiteread (1963), 

House, 1993

9. Alternative Spaces, the NEA, and Censorship.pdf - Course ...

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