Serrano usually works in series in which he
explores a subject by developing an aesthetic. Two
early series,Bodily FluidsandImmersions, begun in
1985 and finished in 1990, utilize bodily fluids in
previously unexplored ways. Serrano constructed
Plexiglas containers out of simple shapes (a circle
or a cross) to hold urine, blood, or milk, which he
then photographed. He also began to combine the
fluids in larger tanks to see how they would mix.
Eventually, Serrano began to work with another
bodily fluid, semen, and, using a camera with a
motor drive, created photographs such asUntitled
VII (Ejaculate in Trajectory), 1989. In addition,
Serrano began to immerse objects—small sta-
tues—in the vats of bodily fluids. For example, in
Female Bust, 1988, he immersed a small plaster bust
of Venus in a vat of his urine, and, after lighting it
from all sides, photographed it. The result is a
beautiful classical image bathed in a warm glow of
light. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many critics
read these series in light of the AIDS crisis, and saw
the images as political representations of bodily
fluids that had become taboo and dangerous.
In 1988, Serrano was awarded a $15,000 grant
through the Awards in the Visual Arts program of
the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
(SECCA), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a pro-
gram partially funded by the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA). The award included participa-
tion in a traveling exhibition, included in which was
the now infamous Piss Christ, 1987. When the
American Family Association, who viewed the
image as offensive to Christians, complained to
the members of Congress, North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms and New York Senator Alphonse
D’Amato launched an attack at the NEA for
using taxpayer monies to support offensive art.
The controversy was extensively covered in the
press, and joined controversies over other contem-
porary artists who had received NEA grants, result-
ing in the ‘‘culture wars’’ of the late 1980s and early
1990s that raised questions about freedom of ex-
pression, federal funding for the arts in the United
States, freedom of religion, and censorship.
After thePiss Christcontroversy made Serrano
one of America’s most well-known photographers,
he gradually ceased to use bodily fluids in his work
and began to make portraits. In 1990, he started two
new photographic series:Nomads, which made heroic
portraits of New York’s homeless; andKlansmen,
whichpicturedmembersoftheKuKluxKlanin
their hooded dress. Serrano has stated that ‘‘being
who I am, racially and culturally, it was a challenge
formetoworkwiththeKlan,asmuchformeasfor
them, that’s why I did it’’ (Serrano,Talking Art,
1993). Serrano points out that he was inspired by
photographer Edward Curtis’s photographs of
Native Americans for theNomadsseries. Unfazed
by recent criticism of Curtis as romanticizing indigen-
ous people, Serrano wanted to create heroic portraits
that ‘‘monumentalized’’ his subjects, a word that he
uses often in interviews. Indeed, Serrano continued
this tradition in the 1996 seriesNative Americans,
which pictures traditionally dressed native people in
brilliantly colored, large-format portraits.
Functioning as another kind of portrait and refer-
ring to the Victorian practice of photographing
the deceased, Serrano made a series of images in
an Italian morgue. These photographs from his
Morgueseries tend to focus on details, rather than
the whole body.The Morgue (Knifed to Death I),
1992, for example, pictures an outstretched hand
against a black backdrop, the fingertips blackened
in the process of identification. At the left of the
image, a streak of blood has oozed from a vertical
wound just above the wrist. The photographs in this
series are both horrific, producing a visceral reac-
tion, as well as quiet and strangely beautiful.
Serrano has claimed that rather than attacking
icons, he creates them. This is evident in all his
portrait series. ForThe History of Sex, a project
undertaken for the Groninger Museum in Amster-
dam in 1996, Serrano created images that act as types
for various sexualities, sexual acts, or sexual fanta-
sies. Serrano’s latest series,America, begun in 2002,
suggests August Sander’s portraits of Germans in
that it presents American ‘‘types’’ including a heroin
addict, Hollywood stars, an escort, and a Native
American woman. In America (Boy Scout John
Schneider, Troop 422), 2002, Serrano puts a young,
blond-haired blue-eyed boy in a three-quarter pose,
in front of a glowing reddish-orange backdrop. This
boy becomes as much of an icon as the musician
portrayed inAmerica (Snoop Dogg), 2002.
Despite his provocative subject matter, Serrano’s
imagery is strongly traditional. Compared to other
twentieth-century artists, Serrano draws much more
on art historical models and established aesthetics. It
is this combination of tradition and provocation that
makes his photographs so appealing to a wide public.
LindaM. SteerSeealso:History of Photography: the 1980s; Repre-
sentation and Race; SurrealismBiography
Born in New York, New York, 1950. Studied art at the
Brooklyn Museum Art School, 1967–1969. National
Endowment for the Arts Grant, 1989. Became associatedSERRANO, ANDRES