Alison Robinson
Art 11
Prof. Justin Campoy Controversial art exhibit What makes a painting controversial? Maybe something that attacks our religious concepts can be controversial; maybe anything that contains nude matter is controversial, or maybe causes a great debate. Well, none of this is wrong because people have general norms related to such matters. Paintings often become controversial when it goes against commonly accepted norms. Throughout history audiences have been offended and outraged by paintings that were socially, religiously or politically inappropriate. Artists used subject matters that were a taboo in social situations. This could be a matter relating to one human being or nudity or addressing a complicated moral issue. The artworks I’ve chosen are all paintings, sculptures, or performance pieces from history that were considered controversial, and by artists who weren’t afraid to stand out. The first piece of art I chose for my exhibit is by Georgia O'Keeffe. It is titled “Blue and Green Music”, 1919/21, and she chose to use Oil on canvas. It measures at 58.4 x 48.3 cm (23 x 18 in.) Although she had not yet visited Europe, Georgia O’Keeffe was exposed to Modernism through exhibitions at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery 291 in New York and her studies at the University of Virginia and Columbia University Teacher’s College. She was drawn to the theories of the Russian Expressionist painter Vasily Kandinsky, who, argued that visual artists should emulate music in order to achieve pure expression free of literary references. O’Keeffe painted a number of oils exploring, as she later recalled, “the idea that music could be translated into something for the eye.” “Blue and Green Music” was meant to suggest the natural world and bring up the experience of sound. However, In the 1920s, when O’Keeffe a serious nature lover, painted this painting, she took a magnifying glass out to her garden and painted flowers in a way no one had before, in extreme close-up. Her flowers, with luxurious and sensual blooms, became well-known and controversial in pop culture because of their uncanny resemblance to the female genitals. While O’Keeffe was heralded for her work, she insisted that it should be looked at for its commentary on man versus nature, not male versus female. Until her death in 1986, she denied intentionally painting the vagina, no matter how many female artists thanked her for bringing the female body out of the shadows. Chris Offili was another controversial artist making headlines in his time. Many artists have made their way through New York with their controversial exhibits, but none made a splash quite like Ofili, who managed to stir up a lawsuit with his artwork, “The Holy Virgin Mary” at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. Using chopped up images of the female body, including those making a sexy object of black women, Ofili recreated the scene of the Virgin Mary that European artists have been reworking for decades. Oh yeah, he spattered it with elephant dung, too. Even though dung was used in a satirical and honorable way reflecting Ofili’s Nigerian heritage, it was enough to cause a rampage on the part of former mayor Rudy Giuliani and many upset citizens. Jackson Pollock’s was an artist whose painting was controversial for a different reason. Pollock was the first ``all-over'' painter, pouring paint rather than using brushes and a palette, and abandoning all conventions of a typical painting. He danced over canvases spread across the floor, dripping and dribbling with total control. He said: ``The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.'' He painted no image, just ``action''. His painting “Lavender Mist, created in 1950 and is 3 m long (nearly 10 ft), is an example. It caused controversy and brought up a great debate among people who would view his artwork. When his work is discussed many of the old complaints quickly surface - "It's just the flinging of paint!" and "Hell, anyone could do that!" - While others will passionately defend Pollock with extravagant claims regarding his talent and value. The next artist and artwork I have included in my exhibit is Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by the famous Pablo Picassao. Dated 1907. The painting shows five prostitutes in a brothel. Pablo Picasso offends the Paris art scene in 1907. Showing his eight-foot-square canvas to a group of painters, patrons, and art critics at his studio, Picasso meets with almost unanimous shock, distaste, and outrage. The painter Matisse is angered by the work, which he considers a hoax, an attempt to paint the fourth dimension. "It was the ugliness of the faces that froze with horror the half-converted," the critic Salmon writes later. "One day we shall find Pablo has hanged himself behind his great canvas. Also in creating "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso turns his back on middle-class society and the traditional values of the time, opting for the sexual freedom depicted in a brothel. He also rejects popular current movements in painting by choosing line drawing rather than the color- and light-defined forms of Impressionism and the Fauves. The next one is an interesting one by Carravagio, titled “Young Sick Bacchus” Oil on Canvas: 1593 67 x 53 cm. It was created by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio as a controversial piece of art from the people. To the unsuspecting eye it is a Pan-like image of a young man enjoying the fruits of nature while gazing dreamily at the viewer. However, it's the subtle hints that give this work its value. The young man in the painting is ill, the sickness was assumed by some to be the sexually transmitted disease Syphilis. The artist himself soon suffered the same fate due to multiple partners. With the eating of nature’s fruits, this image was seen as a provocative one as it epitomized a sexual freedom that was not the norm at the time. With Caravaggio being such a controversial painter of the 16th century, I included another work of his to my exhibit. “The death of the Virgin” He always painted the things as he wanted and not the way the church wanted. The church was outraged as soon as they saw this painting for many reasons. Firstly, because Caravaggio used a well-known prostitute of those times as the model of this painting. Secondly, Mary is considered a holy figure by many and according to the church Caravaggio had painted her as if she was just like everyone else. Also, that this painting was supposed to show Mary dying peacefully but looking at the painting, the figure suggested that she was long gone (due to her swollen feet and bloated stomach). Plus, they also didn’t like the way her legs were showing. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)The Origin of the World 1866 Oil on canvas H. 46; W. 55 cm. A very bold painting by Gustavo Courbet. Very realistic and graphic. The name alone has the power to shock and trigger censorship. Gustavo tried to violate the public and he loved doing that with his paintings. But he never dared to cross the lines. He made ‘The origin of the world’ in protest against the Academy, where students were trained to draw the statues with stereotyped and camouflaged bodies. Courbet hated this formula and said he could only paint what he saw. Then started the paintings ride with controversies. In 1994 a French novel reproduced this painting on its book cover, which the French police removed from the stalls as soon as it was published. Similar controversy was repeated in 2009 in Baraga, Portugal. Later in 2011, Facebook also censored ‘The origin of the world’, disabling the accounts and pages about this painting. Peter Lagenbach's who was a sculptor, sculpted ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships' which is a humorous sculpture of former president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky lounging together in a bathtub. The humor of the situation represented by the artwork is compounded by the clever title, which is an old British adage from Word War II. In this context it refers both to the scandalous nature of the secrets that were kept from the American public, as well as the extreme shock of the whole affair. The Artwork was praised by critics and won first prize at the California State Fair in Sacramento, only to eventually be declared unfit for exhibition and banned from the gallery that housed it. Last but not least, I have included a performance art video to my exhibit. Paintings and sculptures were not the only types of artwork that could be controversial. ZHU YU – EATING PEOPLE (2000) is the title of this shocking image. "No religion forbids cannibalism,” argued Chinese artist Zhu Yu. "Nor can I find any law which prevents us from eating people. I took advantage of the space between morality and the law and based my work on it." Zhu Yu recorded himself in his own kitchen eating a six-month old dead fetus, which was supposedly stolen from a medical school. It led to a global outcry, and as a consequence, China’s Ministry of Culture cited it as a menace to social order and the spiritual health of the Chinese people. As you can see "Art" and what is right is so loosely defined that some people are really taking advantage of pushing the limits of its definition. There's definitely a point where we can disagree with an artwork actually being art, but sometimes what crosses that line is completely unclear and hotly debated. Hopefully this exhibit evokes your own thoughts, ideas and feelings about what ‘controversial’ really is.

* Chris Ofili (artist), The Holy Virgin Mary, 1996 ,paper collage, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins & elephant dung on linen, 243.8 x 182.9 cm * Jackson Pollock (artist)
American, 1912 - 1956
Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950 oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas overall: 221 x 299.7 cm (87 x 118 in.) framed: 223.5 x 302.3 x 3.8 cm (88 x 119 x 1 1/2 in.)

* Georgia O'Keeffe
American, 1887-1986
Blue and Green Music, 1919/21
Oil on canvas
58.4 x 48.3 cm (23 x 18 in.) * Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Date:
Paris, June-July 1907
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm) * Carravagio (artist)
Sick Bacchus
Oil on Canvas: 1593
67 x 53 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

* Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)The Origin of the World
1866
Oil on canvas
H. 46; W. 55 cm * Zhu Yu(artist) “Eating People” (2003)Performance art video * Artist: Caravaggio “ The Death of the Virgin” Completion Date:1603
Style: Baroque
Genre: religious painting
Technique: oil
Material: canvas