Image: Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is launching its first Beaverbrook Book Club with a discussion of Isaac Butler’s newly released book ‘The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars.’ The event is scheduled for October 22 at 6:30 pm in the RBC Room.
The discussion will consider the 1989 controversy surrounding Andres Serrano’s ‘Piss Christ,’ Robert Mapplethorpe’s ‘The Perfect Moment’ retrospective, public arts funding, censorship and artistic expression. In 1989, Serrano’s ‘Piss Christ’ became the centre of a national controversy over public arts funding, censorship and artistic expression. Alongside Mapplethorpe’s ‘The Perfect Moment’ retrospective, the work became a flashpoint in America’s culture wars, debates that continue to resonate today.
The gallery’s visit will also explore ‘Piss Christ’s’ connection to Salvador Dalí’s ‘Santiago El Grande.’
Together, the program will consider the role of museums in presenting challenging work, the line between provocation and expression, and what it means for a gallery to hold a piece with this history in its own collection.
