Putin Art

Sat Aug 31 19:26:30 UTC 2013

so................ getting back to "Interesting, too, would be if a major house in the US were to hang a similar "exhibit" of Obama and, let's say, Bernanke."

I say that no one would get by with exhibiting anywhere publicly in the US this same picture except with at least one of the faces Obama's.  Isn't the Putin painting in focus here still an affront upon him personally?  Wouldn't it be a racial matter in the case of the Nobel Laureate?

have fun.  

> Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 21:50:08 +0400
> From: jwilson at SRAS.ORG
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Putin Art
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> 
> Piss Christ and Poop Madonna were some of the exhibits that got enough
> political attention in the US for the US to severely cut funding for the NEA
> after 1989. 
> 
> The organization has suffered ever since -
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts
> 
> Not sure where that fall on the Putin scale - but certainly I would class
> the moves by congress as collective punishment for all artists on the basis
> on the "crimes" of a few... and collective punishment is usually decried in
> democracies... 
> 
> 
> Josh Wilson
> Assistant Director
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
> Editor in Chief
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
> SRAS.org 
> jwilson at sras.org
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Stefani, Sara Marie
> Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 1:25 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Putin Art
> 
> 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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