9 Art and morality
Some controversial cases: Mapplethorpe, Serrano, Finley,
and others
In 1989 national protests erupted in response to a decision by the US-government-
funded National Endowment for the Arts to support exhibitions featuring
Robert Mapplethorpe, whose work included homoerotic photographs, and
Andres Serrano, whose work includedPiss Christ, a 5 foot by 3 foot photograph
of a wood and plastic crucifix floating suspended in the artist’s urine. In
response to the protests, Congress enacted a law directing the NEA to“take
into consideration general standards of decency and respect for the diverse
beliefs and values of the American public”in awarding grants.^1
In June 1990 NEA chairman John Frohnmayer, citing this law and describing
their work as“indecent,”then vetoed awards to four artists–Karen Finley,
Holly Hughes, Tim Miller, and John Fleck–that had been recommended by a
NEA peer review panel. Hughes, Miller, and Fleck are gay and deal with homo-
sexual issues in their work.^2 Finley’s most notorious work is her 1989 perform-
ance pieceWe Keep Our Victims Ready, inspired by the case of Tawana Brawley, a
15-year-old girl who was found on November 28, 1987 alive near her home in
upstate New York, covered with feces and wearing only a Hefty trash bag. Ms.
Brawley claimed to have been abducted and assaulted by three or six white
police officers. After several weeks of investigation, a grand jury concluded
“there is nothing in regard to Tawana Brawley’s appearance on November 28
that is inconsistent with this condition having been self-inflicted.”^3 In her
performance piece, Finley asks about Brawley’s staging of her abduction and
(^1) Amendment §954(d)(1) of the NEA’s reauthorization bill (1990).
(^2) Information archived at http://www.franklinfurnace.org/research/essays/nea4/neatimeline.html
(^3) A full account of the Brawley case is archived at http://www.courttv.com/legaldocs/newsmakers/
tawana/index.html
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