Transgressions: The Offences of Art

Rating:
Summary: Is it scat or art?
Review: This book nudges up to all kinds of scary issues: pornography, images of violence, censorship, freedom of expression. The brilliant lawyer Anthony Julius takes as his occasion the ways in which modern art since the mid nineteenth century has taken as part of its mission to challenge (and raise into public consciousness) the moral and cultural norms of a society. When is a work of art pornographic? When does it portray and comment upon a work of such savage violence that we are violated by being challenged to even look at it? What role does satire play in massaging transgressive images and their ideas for general consumption? From Manet's "Olympia" to Serrano's "Piss Christ," Julius assembles the evidence in this broadly and wonderfully written account of a modern phenomenon. Highly recommended.