The Visual Art : Censorship And The Visual Arts

Censorship is a highly controversial topic regarding the arts, controlling the freedom of expression of artists to convey what is deemed acceptable within society. Ai Weiwei falls victim under the power of the regime and the influence of censorship guidelines within China, limiting the display of his art due to the important messages he raises. Andres Serrano has experienced attempted censorship on his provocative image, Piss Christ, and has been attacked for producing offensive art. Censorship aims to conceal certain artworks which clash with the viewpoints of others; however, it should not be enforced as they are confrontational, challenging audiences and act in response to political, social and cultural contexts.

Art has been around since the beginning of humankind and it has been and will always be a visual form of human expression, ideas, and morals. Art is subjective and everyone will feel differently towards one specific artwork. But disliking an artwork because it offends you does not mean that you must destroy it. Recently, a white artist, Dana Schutz created an abstract painting of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American that was killed by a couple of white men because he supposedly whistled at a white lady. Many people have deemed this artwork as a form of cultural appropriation and have demanded the artist to take it down. Despite the controversies of this artwork, art should never ever be censored because it violates the artist’s freedom

The First Amendment speaks on the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition; so important, they found their place in the US Constitution. Even with these freedoms meaning so much to the majority of America, somehow today we still encounter differences in political and religious views that seem to provoke people to act violently against a piece of art or even physically against the artist that created it such as in the recent case of artist Illma Gore. Often the violent action of destroying a work of art is “more offensive” than the image itself. We should allow artists free reign of subject matter as well as style and work together to prevent art desecration and violence through education of the arts. Censorship is the result of the fear of art. When the fear of art turns into iconoclasm or, rejection of a valued belief system, that fear becomes lack of government funding, desecration, and physical violence.

Censorship can be found all the way back to 443 BC, Rome. It was used in Greece, and a good government meant the people were shaped well. In order for the people to be well shaped they needed censorship, which is why it was such an important job. The first law for censorship did not become established until 300 AD in China (Newth). Frank states that many works of art have been changed and sometimes even erased because the content was not liked by people. The biggest reason why people do not like by people were for religious, social, or political reasons. Censorship was pushed artists’ freedom away by not letting them fully express their work. In 1565, Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel fresco was said to be unholy and wrong in the Catholic

The history of the world has undoubtedly been dominated by an endless struggle for power. However, after a brief glimpse into the pages of history it should not take long to realize that the trick to maintaining power lies in the control of information. Even the most fearsome military generals of the past acknowledge the power of the mind and ideas over lethal force. Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin once said “… [Ideas] are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, then why should we let them have ideas.” Stalin’s quote personifies the main concept of this literature review which will be discussing the history of government censorship and its effects that are

For instance in the novel the protagonist Guy Montag says “Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave.They might just stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don't hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it”. In this quote we can see some of the effects of extreme censorship, where it can lead to people not being able to discuss certain topics and talk about things that are important because other people find it offensive or can’t even get the news out in the first place because of censorship. Another negative thing that could be caused by censorship is that in a way it would take away the some of our freedom for example in The New York Times article “Lights out, Huck, They still want to sivilize you” it says “This is the academic equivalent od Ed Sullivan in 1967 prudishly making the Rolling Stones change ‘Let’s spend the night together’ to ‘Let’s spend time together.’ Or Cole Porter having to change ‘cocaine’ in ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ to ‘perfume in Spain’.” In this example you can see how there are other artists that have already have some of their artistic freedom taken away unfairly because of

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Censorship is “anti-creation” and “the censor’s lie actually succeeds in replacing the artist’s truth”. When something is censored, it is then “thought to have deserved censorship”. This shows that artists need to feel liberated to feel safe enough to be creative and not be silenced by people’s criticism. When something is censored it becomes attacked and starts to define the

“Research on the Censorship of ‘Brave New World”” Although being a subject of controversy for many decades, the novel Brave New World has survived the test of time and is even considered a classic. With that in mind, this novel is still continued to be challenged as it ranked number 7 in ALA’s “Frequently Challenged Books for the 21st Century” for 2011 (“Frequently Challenged Books for the 21st Century”). This list is composed of books that people don’t believe are suitable for the public to view. Another name for this, when the books are actually banned, is called censorship. However, should people actually be able to infringe on other people’s right to read books based on their narrow moral or religious views?

When I first heard the word censorship, I did not know what to think really. Censorship to me was like R-rated movies, limitations in school and certain government rules. I knew that censorship had a negative meaning behind it and that its popularly practiced in other countries. When I looked more into censorship, I had no clue how much of our world actually provoked it as well. I began looking into the definition of censorship and a light bulb went off in my head! I realized that in high school, I learned about the censorship of journalism in America. With that and the help of our professors writing outline, I was able to begin the idea process of this essay. This essay allowed me to push my limits as a writer and make my writing even better!

     Censorship is a main problem or issue today, and in the book it shows up in one of his chronicles, “Usher II”. In this chronicle, a man builds a house of Usher. One man points (he was from a group that was against all forms of imagination) out, “No books, no houses, nothing to be produced which in any way

“It is not only the poets therefore that we must issue orders requiring them to represent good character in theri poems or write at all; we muse issue similar orders to all artists and prevent them from portraying bad character, ill discipline, meanness or ugliness in painting, sculpture, architecture, or any work of art, and if they are unable to comply they must be forbidden to practice art” to respond to that Ron Swanson would say “Why the government [should be] involved in an art show is beyond me.” Let's start with why censorship is evil and wrong, and something trump would do. Censoring art because it makes you uncomfortable is the 8th cardinal sin. To create is to be human to deny the expression of a world as seen through an artist

Censorship has for years been the method for how authorities have controlled masses and lead them to believe ideas that differ from the truth. For example, during the Vietnam War the US government inhibited media from covering the atrocities and menace of the Vietcong for the sake of maintaining the support of Americans and preventing insurgency. The prowess of censorship is commonly accentuated in literature, and

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

The risks of stifling free expression far outweigh the potential for unacceptable material. Content which we consider perfectly acceptable today would have been regarded as taboo 50 years ago. In the report of the Censorship Review Committee of 2003, it was noted that the report was kept relevant against the backdrop of our social evolution and changing global landscape while understanding the need to fan the creative flames of the new generation and to accommodate the diversity of views. The social “glue” that bonds our society was not to be compromised, namely Singapore’s core values, identity, shared memories, religious and racial harmony. But the question one has to ask would be, are these changes coming fast enough to cope with the blooming art’s scene here, or is it a tightening noose fighting progress and growth? The report declares that “censorship is not just about classification, or access control; nor is it simply about liberalisation or tightening up. Censorship is multi-dimensional, relating media and artistic expression to the social values of community.” (Part IV, 9.0, Conclusion, pg 71) I beg to differ.