Controversial Art

For this weeks blog post on controversial art I decided to discuss the controversy that arose over Maya Ying Lin’s “Vietnam Memorial” in Washington, D.C. in 1982. This piece was done on polished black granite, and was 492 feet in length. I think there are a lot of benefits to having controversial art exist. First of all, the most obvious reason is for the people who are fans of controversial art. If every piece of art that was done and published had guidelines and standards then art as we know it would be different. Art would be more limited, and I don’t think anybody would like that. I also believe that maybe artists would be reluctant to do certain pieces, fearing that maybe in somebody’s opinion it was controversial. I do not believe that the world would be a better place if all art was done based off predetermined standards. Art is one of very few things that has no rules, that’s what it unique about it. Anything is possible when it comes to art. I don’t think it is even possible to have standards and regulations put on it. Somebody somewhere is going to be painting or sculpting whatever they want. If it was possible then saying that we live in “a world of art” would slowly start becoming less and less true. Like I said before art is art because it has no rules. I’d feel like if the world had walls around it, the walls would slowly be closing in on us; if that makes sense. I was surprised on a lot of people reactions to certain pieces of art. Some considered Maya Lin’s memorial to be “an insult to the memory of the very soldiers to whom it was supposed to honor”. Personally if I see art that I don’t like; whether it’s because I don’t agree with what it means or if I just don’t like the way it looks, I simply won’t look at it anymore. I won’t raise issues and create problems over it. I think more people should do that if they disagree with something. I do however kind of understand the controversy that arose over Chris Ofili’s piece titled “The Holy Virgin Mary”. From a viewers standpoint it is pretty absurd to see that the artist used elephant shit in the piece. It’s hard to see any well meaning in that. But, Ofili said that he wanted to bring “their beauty and decorativeness together with the ugliness of shit and make them exist in a twilight zone.” Which goes to show, like the book said, there are many factors that go into the arts value.