My art teacher in high school said censorship ruins creativity, but I think she was wrong about Mapplethorpe

I was looking through old notes from my senior year art class in Portland, and my teacher said Robert Mapplethorpe's photos were banned just because people were 'too scared' of art. But reading about the 1990 Cincinnati museum case where they were actually charged with obscenity, I think there's a difference between censoring and not wanting sexual imagery of kids in public spaces. Has anyone here actually looked at the whole exhibit and seen what the controversy was really about?

2 comments

2 Comments

ericschmidt21d ago

Figured someone would bring up Mapplethorpe sooner or later. The Cincinnati thing was more about pushing boundaries for shock value than actual art. Look, the man took some really good black and white portraits, but he also took pictures of guys doing stuff with bullwhips and things that most folks would find weird even now. Calling it censorship feels like a stretch when the real question is whether taxpayers should fund a museum showing that stuff.

the_ben20d ago

Wait, bullwhips?