In 1857, Leopold II, the Mexican-born, Grand Duke of Tuscany unexpectedly presented Queen Victoria with a full-size plaster cast of Michelangelo’s David. A rather wieldy goodwill gesture measuring over 19 feet, the gift was immediately routed by the Foreign Office to South Kensington’s new museum (now the Victoria & Albert or V&A). Upon seeing the work for the first time, the 38-year old Victoria was shocked to encounter David in all his glory. She immediately commissioned a detachable fig leaf to protect the modesty of women and children of the Royal Household. Each time she visited, the fig leaf was quickly positioned with hooks—a practice that continued for female members of the Royal Family until 1953. Today, the fig leaf, an exiled veteran of Victorian social mores is now displayed at the V&A behind the plinth supporting the cast of David. In case you were wondering, it measures about a foot and a half.
The use of the fig leaf as a sort of decorative censoring device can be traced back for centuries and the works of Michelangelo were certainly no strangers to it. A month after the artist’s death in 1564, the Pope hired a lesser artist to paint loincloths and fig leaves over figures in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgment. Recent conservation at the Vatican attempting to remove these additions found that sections of the frescos had been gouged out and completely replastered, in what had been a not so subtle lesson for 16th-century artists working within the watchful eye of Rome.
Both examples illustrate the most common form of artistic censorship, in which the public is shielded from an artist’s work that has been deemed immoral, dangerous, inflammatory or just inappropriate. Fig leaves are added, funding is pulled, protests are mounted and editorials flourish. But who decides from what ideas and images should be protected? If even Michelangelo wasn’t safe, what hope do other artists have?
The realm of public art is no stranger to such controversy. One of the most contentious artistic spheres, public art is the result of committee decisions, impassioned vision and often many, many diplomatic concessions. In the end though, all of this is important, insuring that as many voices are heard as possible. After all, public art occupies our space. As such it requires us to respond without a museum or gallery framing its context for us. Responses can range from the ho-hum to the red-hot -- just ask Don Juan de Equestrian.
A few months ago, calls were raised to effectively censor the work of local artist Francisco Delgado, currently on view at the Richard Burges Branch of the El Paso Public Library. Raised in the Segundo Barrio and with an MFA from the Yale School of Art, Delgado’s works are often challenging. The work in question, Aguila o Sol (Flip of the Coin) is part of the Public Art Program’s popular Art & Sol Project which engaged local artists to reinterpret a sculptural sun. In the work, a donkey acts as stand-in for the artist, split between a Mexican and American side of the sphere. Animals, images of Juarez Policeman, Border Patrol Agents and piñatas all swirl across the work. What has caused the most controversy is the inclusion of images of drug paraphernalia.
Like all of the artist’s works, Aguila o Sol (Flip of the Coin) navigates the complexity, turbulence, beauty and danger of life on the US-Mexico Border. The work is not an endorsement of drug use, but rather a frank examination of a problem that plagues numerous communities with harsh economic conditions and marginalized populations.
The Library has bravely kept the work on view, asserting that more than any other institution a library’s role is not to censor but to actively promote the exchange of ideas and to facilitate dialogue. Art, like literature, is a potent prompt in that dialogue. In regards to Aguila o Sol, patrons are free to self-censor and walk past or stop and think. As the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said, “The purpose of art is not to provide answers, but to help us frame the question.”
Controversy aside, the City of El Paso’s Public Art Program is finally sprinting. Within the next few weeks, the first project to be vetted through the open process will be completed, providing a monumental, modern mural that celebrates the idea of healing and will provide local artist Mitsu Overstreet a permanent place in El Paso’s rich mural tradition. The work’s bold design and mostly its abstracted forms have already elicited strong reactions, both positive and negative. While it’s unlikely that there will be calls to paint any fig leaves, it’s exciting to be part of the dialogue.
***
Ben Fyffe is Arts and Education Programs Specialist with the city of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department
Anna
March 22, 2008
Art sometimes asks us not only to confront the social conditions under which we live but also to go as far as imagining alternatives to those conditions. The freedom of artists to reveal such continues to be contested and curtailed, whether by the Church, the State or the prevailing beliefs of local communities and constituencies. The ability of contemporary art to generate public debate, to provoke attempts at censorship is a sign not of that art's perversity or marginalization but rather of its centrality to democracy's practice and promise. Bravo Ben.
claude montes
March 23, 2008
The Sol project to me is not an artistic project but a touristic one. Tourists are expected to flock from Sol to Sol until they see them all, hopefully the whole city in the process.
I think it is an insult to the artist's intelligence when asked to decorate a work that was already conceived by another artist. Be it a pony, a star, a heart...a sun. I get asked quite often to paint a precut object as a fund raising tool. It almost feels like a paint-by-number event where half the work is already done.
Going back to the Sol project. I walked into the Richard Burgess library one day and saw the appearance of a security guard by the door. To save money, the security guard position at this branch was eliminated. When I asked why there was one present, I was told that the Sun sculpture needed protection from vandalism and protest. It is an insult to sculptors such as myself by calling those painted spheres sculptures. I have great respect for all the artists who painted on those fiberglass spheres.
There are many books in the very library that can raise higher criticisms and protests, but the people who have the audacity to protest against a work of art probably do not have the ability to read nor the desire to see in those very books, words and pictures that may prove to be doubly offensive.
Richard Florida gave a lecture in El Paso about the "Creative Class." Unfortunately, that creative class is either dormant or has already left because the state of art in the city has yet to show an improvement since that initial lecture which took place four years ago.
We do not need to bring from the outside, artists or lecturers who are trained to raise consciousness about art. We should look in our own backyard first and recognize the artists that are present. The artistic grass is always greener in the location where it grows- there is no need to import it nor ignore its actual presence.
claude montes
miguel
March 24, 2008
its amazing what pathetic topics we can choose as 'controversial' in such a watered down art scene. censorship in this city is not necessary, we don't have any artists smart enough to create 'real controversy'.
Mervin Moore
March 25, 2008
Thanks to Ben Fyffe for a well-done article. And, congratulations to our City for not succumbing to the perils of censorship.
We should be thankful that we do not live in a monarchy where our choices can be dictated on the whim of one individual.
The picture of the work of Francisco Delgado is beautiful. I can't wait to see the actual sphere at the library. With reference to Chekhov, there is a wealth of questions to "frame" regarding our Border and our freedom to choose should be a major consideration.