While in the middle of a presidential race filled with xenophobic rhetoric, political scandals, petty insults, and at times even the occasional debate about policy differences, it can be hard to remember that art has frequently had a substantive effect on politics. Here is a look at the visual art, theater, literature, and other works from the last century that have influenced new legal precedents, been used as tools in revolutionary uprisings, and even determined what mail was once allowed into America.
1. “L’origine du monde” — Gustave Courbet
Facebook has often drawn criticism for its puritanical attitude toward nudity and what it apparently classifies as “intimate” content, particularly compared to its nonchalant attitude toward much “violent” imagery. For Frederic Durand-Baissas, a Parisian teacher, this issue became personal when he posted an image of Courbet’s iconic painting on the social networking site and had his account suspended later that day. Durand-Baissas went to court, demanding that his account be reinstated and that he receive $22,500 in damages because of Facebook’s act of censorship. After five years of legal proceedings, a French high court set
new precedent by ruling that the company could be sued in France and not only in its local Santa Clara, California court, as the tech company had previously argued.
2. “Spirit of Justice” — C. Paul Jennewein
More than a decade prior to the awkward veiling of statues in a Roman museum during a visit by Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, it was reported that United States attorney general John Ashcroft had
$8,000 drapes installed in front of this statue located in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, DC. Ashcroft, it seems, did not want its single bared breast on display during his speeches,
drawing criticism from many around the world who have been accused by Americans for not upholding those famous “Western liberal values.”
3. Shiraz Arts Festival, 1967-77
The annual festival, which showcased avant-garde theater, film, dance, and music predominantly from Europe, was in part an attempt by the Pahlavis to distract from their catalogue of human rights abuses. Although it introduced to Iran critically important work, such as Peter Brook’s theatrical productions and the films of Sergei Parajanov, the festivals displayed a patent disregard for the sensibilities of many Iranians. Ayatollah Khomeini saw in the events an opportunity to grow anti-Shah sentiment following a performance by the Hungarian theater troupe Squat Theatre, during which two fully-clothed actors mimed having sex in the middle of a Shiraz street. Incorrect reports stated that the two had been naked and that an actual rape occurred, prompting Khomeini to call for a “protest” of such “indecent acts.”
4. “Piss Christ” — Andres Serrano / “The Holy Virgin Mary” — Chris Ofili
In the United States, public funding of the arts has perhaps never faced more scrutiny than during the “culture wars” of the late 1980s and ’90s. For his photograph,
Andres Serrano won a $15,000 fellowship from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, sponsored in part by the National Endowment of the Arts. The
outcry against the 1987 work, along with a 1989 exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs, led to Congress passing an amendment in 1989 that stopped the NEA’s ability “to promote, disseminate, or produce materials which in the judgment of [the NEA] may be considered obscene.” The law includes a litany of “obscene” subjects, such as sadomasochism and homoeroticism. In 1999,
Chris Ofili caused a similar controversy with his painting that so
incensed New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani that he worked to defund the Brooklyn Museum of Art where the work was on display — actions that a US District Judge declared in violation the First Amendment.
5. Mickey Mouse — Disney
Mickey Mouse first appeared in the 1928 cartoon “Steamboat Willy.” At the time, Disney could maintain copyright protection for up to 56 years. Considering the success of Disney’s brand, the last thing the company wanted was to lose ownership of its mascot, so in the 1970s, it successfully lobbied Congress to change the copyright laws to life plus 50 years for single authors and 75 years for work made by corporations, including those already in existence. More legislation in 1998 extended the latter coverage to 95 years, solidifying the company’s ownership until 2023. Well before that time comes, however, Disney will no doubt lobby for another extension act, seeking to keep Mickey Mouse and company out of the public domain.
6. “Ulysses” — James Joyce
The 1922 novel, which many deem the greatest ever written, was first published in serialized form from 1918 to 1920 in the American literary magazine “The Little Review.” One chapter features the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, masturbating to the fantasy of a young woman — a scene that prompted the daughter of a New York attorney to bring the text to her father, which resulted in the arrest of the magazine’s editors and the obscenity trial that continues to affect artists today. The judge ruled that the novel was not pornographic and that in all future cases, obscenity accusations must take into consideration the entire work in question, “its dominant effect… relevancy of the objectionable parts to the theme, [and] the established reputation of the work in the estimation of approved critics.”
7. Interracial Kiss on “Star Trek”
Although the kiss shared by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols on an episode of “Star Trek” in 1968 has recently lost its popular claim as the first interracial kiss on television (previous instances include a 1967 embrace by Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., and a kiss during the 1962 broadcast of the play “You in Your Small Corner” on British television), its importance in American culture is unrivaled, occurring as it did during a critical time in the Civil Right’s Movement. The moment was not scripted but rather the result of Shatner’s reading of the scene — an interpretation with which neither the studio executives nor the episode’s director were comfortable, as Nichols discusses in
an amusing interview.
8. Moscow Cathedral Performance, 2012 — Pussy Riot
Several months after the punk rock protest group’s first public performance, five members of Pussy Riot performed their song “Mother of God, Drive Putin Away,” a critique of the Russian Orthodox Church’s role in the country’s government and its views on women, at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Of those involved, three women — Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — were arrested and the latter two sentenced to two years in prison. Russian president Vladimir Putin received condemnation in Russia and abroad for the court’s ruling, and in December 2013 he submitted an amnesty bill to the Duma that, after passing, freed thousands of prisoners, including Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova. But the legislation was widely seen as a propaganda ploy for Putin to gain support before the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi — a move that backfired, especially following the activists’ own condemnation of their release, and reinforced the continued effectiveness of Pussy Riot’s work.
9. “La Maja Desnuda” — Francisco Goya
The Spanish government was once morally corrupting young philatelists, according to many Catholics in the country who protested a set of stamps issued in 1930 honoring Francisco Goya. Airmail postage featuring the artist’s painting “La Maja Desnuda” caused this outrage, which soon spread internationally as well. The United States in particular took issue with the image and banned all mail bearing the stamp from reaching its destination.
10. Political cartoons — Ali Ferzat
In 2011, as unrest was stirring across northern Africa and western Asia, the Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat decided he would stop avoiding President Bashar al-Assad in his work. He believes that
one drawing in particular, of Assad hitching a ride out of Syria with Moammar Gaddafi, was what provoked an attack against him by a pro-regime (possibly government supported) group that broke both of his hands in the assault. Following the incident, Ferzat won the Sakharov Prize and now works for Amnesty International UK,
pointedly critiquing Britain through his art for its poor support of Syrian refuges.
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