Putin Art

[Stefani, Sara Marie]

In 1989, there was Robert Mapplethorpe's notorious "One Perfect Moment" exhibition, which aroused the ire of the US Congress and also led to charges of obscenity being brought against both the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director. They were both found innocent of the charges, but the highly sexualized and, especially, homoerotic nature of Mapplethorpe's images led to a significant nationwide culture war over federal funding for the arts, as well free speech and the First Amendment. Around the same time, there was also the scandal over Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ," which similarly angered various US Senators (especially Jesse Helms), and some religious and other officials sought injunctions against it being exhibited. The injunctions were denied, but the attempts were still made. The argument about federal funding was repeated in 1999-2000 with the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, particularly over its inclusion of what is colloquially known as the "elephant dung Madonna." Then-mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to get the Museum evicted from its location; Giuliani also pulled all city funding for the Museum until a federal judge ordered him to reinstate it, and the US House of Representatives likewise suspended federal funding.

100% analogous examples may not exist, since American and Russian culture each exist on different terms, but examples are still there in both countries in recent memory. Americans seem to get less riled up over political art than over religion and sex, especially homosexuality, as in the case of Mapplethorpe. We also seem to use money as the weapon of choice and the threat of pulling federal funding for "obscene" works (as if anyone can define what "obscene" means), rather than using the law to pull a work or forbid it to be exhibited (although the Corcoran Gallery refused to show Mapplethorpe's exhibition, and I'm sure that if Giuliani had possessed the same legal powers that Putin does, he would not have hesitated to use them in Brooklyn!). 

What I find more interesting is why this particular painting was pulled by the Russian authorities. Does anyone know what happened to Vera Donskaya-Khilko's paiting "Wrestling," which was exhibited at the "Tochka G" erotic museum in Moscow a few years ago? I might be wrong, but I think that that painting was not pulled and was allowed to be shown. Her work depicts a very masculine, muscular Putin and Obama preparing to do battle with their very large, erect phalluses. Putin is shown as having not one, but two very large "members." Altunin's painting, on the contrary, shows feminized figures of Putin and Medvedev and contains strong homoerotic overtones - all of which contradicts the hyper-masculine image that Putin has been cultivating over the years. I can't help wondering if Altunin's painting was confiscated not so much on political grounds as on image-making ones.

A fascinating discussion in any event. Thanks to everyone for the interesting perspectives!



Sara Stefani

Assistant Professor

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Indiana University

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at listserv.ua.edu] on behalf of Martin Votruba [votruba+slangs at PITT.EDU]
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 10:28 AM
To: SEELANGS at listserv.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Putin Art

> Don't forget about

I'll probably transgress the interdiction.

> taken down after strong reactions…

Susanne and David spoke, meaningfully, about comparing actions by the authorities. Diego Rivera's mural was taken down by Rockefeller, an owner of the building, not by the authorities.


Martin

votruba "at" pitt "dot" edu

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