Andres Serrano (1950–)Piss Christ, 1987, Cibachrome print mounted on Plexiglas, 40 × 37 3/4 in (101.6 × 96 cm)
SHAKING UP THE STATUS QUO
One of the potential strengths of a work of art is its power to shock, a feat that is usually accomplished by flouting a social convention or breaking a taboo. The artwork transgresses the cultural norms of the community or culture in which it is made and therefore faces ostracism. It may go on to garner support, in which case it will have functioned to shift the culture’s conception of what is acceptable to its members. Otherwise it will soon be consigned to oblivion. Shock art has the added potential of making the artist notorious and sometimes very famous.
A classic example is Manet’s Olympia, of 1863, a nude portrait of a well-known courtesan painted in a manner that had previously been reserved for classical subjects (see Composition on page 45). Here, Manet was exposing the mores of the wealthy, removing the scrim that polite society placed between itself and its vices. Similarly, in 1913 the French artist Marcel Duchamp exhibited Nude Descending the Staircase at the Armory Show in New York (see Movement on page 118). Painted in a loose version of the Cubist style, the work shows a naked woman in stop-action poses as she walks down the staircase. Society at the time found the idea of a nude in motion uncomfortably suggestive.
In the late twentieth century, there was something of a vogue for artists who set out to deliberately shock the public. In 1999, the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York included a work by Andres Serrano (1950–) entitled Piss Christ, a photograph of a crucifix placed in a container of the artist’s urine. In the same exhibition, British artist Chris Ofili (1968–) exhibited The Holy Virgin Mary, an image of the Madonna fabricated from elephant dung and including images of female genitalia torn from pornographic magazines. Both artists enjoyed enormous publicity. Whether their works will retain any lasting interest remains to be seen. The inherent problem with shock as a strategy in art is that it wears off very quickly, leaving the work exposed to more thoughtful examination.
Andres Serrano (1950–)
Piss Christ, 1987, Cibachrome print mounted on Plexiglas, 40 × 37 3/4 in (101.6 × 96 cm)
This photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine appeared at the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. The show elicited a lawsuit from the mayor of New York.
