Examples And Ambiguities Of Art Censorship - 1459 Words

Examples and Ambiguities of Art Censorship (Position Paper) Art censorship, suppression of the arts, has a very long history. This is because all societies must decide what the limits of free speech are, and in this decision they must also decide the status of art. It is easy to raise more questions than answers when exploring this topic as it is a question whose answer is affected by differing perspectives and opinions. It would be exceedingly difficult to articulate an argument based on data, and even more difficult to prove any kind of causation using this data. Because of this I won t even try to make this type of argument, instead I ll only provide some historical and current examples of art censorship and express my own opinion†¦show more content†¦Pope Paul IV ordered a list of prohibited books in 1559. This list has been updated 20 times and was not abolished until 1966. This list was horrifically enforced during the inquisitions through the burning of the books in q uestion and sometimes their authors. In 1652 The Catholic Friar Diego de Landa order the commencement of the burning of Mayan codices and idols. Only three of these codices written in the Mayan hieroglyphics remain. A whole written system was very close to being completely annihilated. This demonstrates how harmful and destructive censorship can become when taken to the extreme. Eventually attitudes towards the naked human figure had changed in the art world. But, in 1865 Edouard Manet s Olympia was still able to generate controversy. Although it was normal to see nude paintings, this particular painting generated controversy because of its realistic rendering which contrasted with the usual idealized style of the time. Also, the woman in the painting returns the viewers gaze which some found to be off putting. This particular work did not experience censorship problems with the government or gallery, but instead the attempted censorship came from bystanders. In fact two policemen were there to guard the painting from them. I would argue that this is indeed a form a censorship. Censorship does not have to come from a government or a gallery, but can come from anyone attempting to suppress speech