A Brief History
On March 18, 1974, a concrete sculpture of a nude female called Güzel İstanbul in Karaköy Square, Istanbul, Turkey, was attacked by persons unknown and toppled after much public criticism for its allegedly “obscene” nature. The 4.8 meter tall sculpture was subsequently moved to Yıldız Park and re-erected, although the damage to the sculpture has not been fixed.
Digging Deeper
It seems people just cannot agree on what is art and what is offensive, and other such instances include:
The “Vietnam Veterans Memorial” by Maya Lin, built in 1982, received severe criticism when unveiled, largely for the choice of black granite, a color associated with shame. The addition of a statue of Vietnam veterans seems to have lessened the criticism.
Also, “The Holy Virgin Mary,” by Chris Ofili in 1996, offended Christians with its incorporation of clippings from pornographic magazines and the use of elephant dung as a media.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What art do you find offensive?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Charles River Editors. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The History of Washington D.C.’s Vietnam War Monument. CreateSpace, 2015.
Kennedy, Roisin and Riann Coulter, Editors. Censoring Art: Silencing the Artwork. I.B. Tauris, 2018.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Mirada of a sculpture by Gürdal Duyar, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
