Art and the Public
Required Readings

Undergraduates ONLY:

Carole S. Vance, "The War on Culture," in Edward Bolton's Culture Wars (New York:  Free Press, 1992, pp. 96-98.  What were the issues involved with the Serrano and Mapplethorpe controversies?  How have these two controversies affected the National Endowment for the Arts and their ability to fund artists and exhibits?

Undergraduates AND Graduates:

Elizabeth Childs, "Where Can We Draw the Line?"  from the introduction to her Suspended:  Censorship and the Visual Arts (Seattle:  University of Washington press, 1997), pp. 18-31.  Does an artist have any protection under U. S. law that a work not be destroyed once it is sold?  How is obscenity defined by the Miller vs. California case?  How has this case been used to clarify when works of art can be censored?

Hilton Kramer, "Is Art Above the Laws of Decency?" and Arthur Danto, "Art and Taxpayers" in Edward Bolton's Culture Wars (New York:  Free Press, 1992), pp. 51-56, 96-98.  What different positions do Kramer and Danto take on the Mapplethorpe/NEA funding controversy?  Whose arguments do you find the most persuasive and why?

Graduate Students ONLY:

Michael Kelly's "Public Art Controversy:  The Serra and Lin Cases," from The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Vol. 54, No. 1, Winter, 1996), pp. 15-22).  What were the reasons for opposition to Richard Serra's Tilted Arc?  to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial?  What does Kelly perceive to be a fundamental source of controversy for public art?  What distinction did the judge in Serra's case make between public and private art?  How does Kelly feel Serra failed to meet the criteria for public art?  In what ways does he feel May Lin succeeded in creating public art?