Many believe that art has an important role in society and artists have a freedom of expression. However, when it comes to public funding of Arts, majority of people would question to support and not voluntarily give their money to some particular artworks and artists who have a strongly different opinion, and try to express what they think is offensive. Ambiguously defined obscene and the fact that there’s no general standards of “proper art” has made many artworks and artists to be attacked. Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary is the example of controversies over public funding and “offensive” art. In 1999, the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibited The Holy Virgin Mary, the work includes many collaged images and materials include pornographic photographs of female genitalia and elephant dung. …show more content…
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had argued that Ofili’s art fostered religious intolerance, and threatened to eliminate city funding and revoke the museum’s lease if the museum let the work to be displayed. The Brooklyn Museum of Art refused his request, and Giuliani filed a suit in the state court. But the court ruled that taxpayers subsidize all manner of views with which they do not agree and even those they abhor. The court’s decision and The Holy Virgin Mary represent the art does not necessarily adherence to respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the public. Ofili’s work is not the only example of public funding of the Arts issue. The artworks about lesbian, gay, or radical feminist art are also the target of censorship and