Piss Christ
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Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition,[1] which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects. A print of the photograph was damaged using a screwdriver or icepick on April 17, 2011 while on exhibit in Avignon, France.[2]
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[edit] Description
The photograph is of a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of what appears to be a yellow liquid. The artist has described the substance as being his own urine.[3][4] The photograph was one of a series of photographs that Serrano had made that involved classical statuettes submerged in various fluids—milk, blood, and urine.[5] The photograph is a 60x40 inch Cibachrome print. It is glossy and its colors are deeply saturated. The presentation is that of a golden, rosy medium including a constellation of tiny bubbles. Without Serrano's explanation, the viewer would not necessarily be able to differentiate between the stated medium of urine and a medium of similar appearance, such as amber or polyurethane.[6]
Serrano has not ascribed overtly political content to Piss Christ and related artworks, on the contrary stressing their ambiguity. He has also said that while this work is not intended to denounce religion, it alludes to a perceived commercializing or cheapening of Christian icons in contemporary culture.[7]
The art critic Lucy R. Lippard has presented a constructive case for the formal value of Serrano's Piss Christ, which she characterizes as mysterious and beautiful.[6] She writes that the work is "a darkly beautiful photographic image… the small wood and plastic crucifix becomes virtually monumental as it floats, photographically enlarged, in a deep rosy glow that is both ominous and glorious." Lippard suggests that the formal values of the image can be regarded separately from other meanings.[8]
[edit] Reception
The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with detractors, including United States Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms, outraged that Serrano received $15,000 for the work, part of it from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts. Serrano received death threats and hate mail, and lost grants due to the controversy.[9] Others alleged that the government funding of Piss Christ violated separation of church and state.[10][11] The work was vandalized at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, and gallery officials reported receiving death threats in response to Piss Christ.[12] Supporters argued that the controversy over Piss Christ is an issue of artistic freedom and freedom of speech.[12]
Sister Wendy Beckett, an art critic and Catholic nun, stated in a television interview with Bill Moyers that she regarded the work as not blasphemous but a statement on "what we have done to Christ": that is, the way contemporary society has come to regard Christ and the values he represents.[13]
During a retrospective of Serrano's work at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1997, the then Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell, sought an injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria to restrain the National Gallery of Victoria from publicly displaying Piss Christ, which was not granted. Some days later, one patron attempted to remove the work from the gallery wall, and two teenagers later attacked it with a hammer.[14] The director of the NGV cancelled the show, allegedly out of concern for a Rembrandt exhibition that was also on display at the time.[10]
Piss Christ was included in "Down by Law," a "show within a show" on identity politics and disobedience that formed part of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. The British Channel 4 TV documentary Damned in the USA explored the controversy surrounding Piss Christ.
On April 17, 2011, a print of Piss Christ was vandalized "beyond repair" by Christian protesters while on display during the Je crois aux miracles (I believe in miracles) exhibition at the Collection Lambert, a contemporary art museum in Avignon, France.[15][16] Serrano's photo The Church was similarly vandalized in the attack.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Johnson, Jennifer (1998-04-09). "NEA's Cloudy Future". Albion Monitor. http://monitor.net/monitor//9804a/nea.html. Retrieved 2006-02-15.
- ^ "Deux œuvres dont "Piss Christ" détruites dans un musée d’Avignon". http://www.france-info.com/culture-medias-art-et-spectacle-2011-04-17-deux-oeuvres-dont-piss-christ-detruites-dans-un-musee-d-avignon-530599-36-40.html.
- ^ Monaco, Paul (2000). Understanding Society, Culture, and Television. Praeger. p. 100. ISBN 0275970957. http://books.google.com/?id=9viccUYUSVYC&pg=PA100&dq=serrano+piss+christ+yellow+liquid#v=onepage&q=serrano%20piss%20christ%20yellow%20liquid&f=false.
- ^ Mortensen, Preben (1997). Art in the social order: the making of the modern conception of art. SUNY Press. p. 13. ISBN 0791432777. http://books.google.com/?id=Qt8uVTV_RQkC&pg=PA13&dq=serrano+piss+christ+yellow+liquid#v=onepage&q=yellow%20liquid&f=false.
- ^ Williams, Peter W. (1999). Perspectives on American religion and culture. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 400. ISBN 1577181174. http://books.google.com/?id=0OFND9MYCowC&pg=PA400&dq=serrano+piss+christ+yellow+liquid#v=onepage&q=yellow&f=false.
- ^ a b Kester, Grant H. (1998). Art, activism, and oppositionality: essays from Afterimage. Duke University Press. p. 126. ISBN 0822320959. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OpwNYhzUfUoJ:metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php%3Ftype%3Dbook%26id%3D1124+Lucy+Lippard+Andres+Serrano+Piss+Christ&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.
- ^ Seeley, Bill (2002). Review—But Is It Art?. ISBN 9780822320951. http://books.google.com/?id=-eu5cm9iuewC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Lucy+Lippard+Andres+Serrano+Piss+Christ#v=onepage&q=Lucy%20Lippard%20Andres%20Serrano%20Piss%20Christ&f=false. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
- ^ Eldridge, Richard Thomas (2003). An introduction to the philosophy of art. Cambridge University Press. p. 211. ISBN 0521801354. http://books.google.com/?id=AOPQy-PwQ2oC&pg=PA211&dq=serrano+piss+christ#v=onepage&q=serrano%20piss%20christ&f=false.
- ^ Fusco, Coco (Fall 1991). "Shooting the Klan: An Interview with Andres Serrano". Community Arts Network. High Performance Magazine. http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2002/09/shooting_the_kl.php.
- ^ a b Casey, Damien (June 2000). "Sacrifice, Piss Christ, and liberal excess." (Reprint). Law Text Culture. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/dacasey/Serrano.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ Catapano, Pete (2004-04-01). PopPolitics.com "Holy Art (!)". PopPolitics.com. PopPolitics Media. http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2001/04/04/Holy_Art PopPolitics.com.
- ^ a b Roth, Martin (1999). "Chapter 10: When Blasphemy Came to Town". Living Water to Light the Journey. MartinRothOnline.com. http://www.martinrothonline.com/lw10.htm.
- ^ Heartney, Eleanor (July 1998). "A consecrated critic — profile of popular television art critic Sister Wendy Beckett". Art in America. Archived from the original on 2008-06-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20080606014020/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n7_v86/ai_21113230/pg_2. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Sage, Alexandria (2011-04-18). "Vandalism and threats greet "Piss Christ" in France". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-france-art-idUSTRE73H4JR20110418. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^ "Une photographie d'art controversée détruite à Avignon". lemonde.fr. http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2011/04/17/une-photographie-d-art-polemique-detruite-a-avignon_1509023_3246.html.
