College Yanks ‘Offensive’ Photo From Art Show Flyer : Censorship: A blank spot on the mailing marks a last-minute decision to delete a photo of two sculptures that administrators feared might be offensive. The work itself will remain on display.
CYPRESS — A photograph by Los Angeles artist Rafael Serrano was yanked from a flyer for an exhibit at Cypress College by school administrators who deemed that the work, which depicts two stylized phallic sculptures, might offend some people.
The large blank spot left on the flyer by the last-minute decision is outlined in dashes, with one sentence inside: “This work is unique, but may be considered offensive to some.†Works by the two other artists in the exhibit, Sheila Pinkel and Charlene Knowlton, are reproduced on the flyer in full color.
College President Kirk Avery, who said he made the decision after consulting with other administrators, said the Serrano work was removed for fear that it would be considered in bad taste. The flyer was sent to the school’s general mailing list at taxpayer expense.
“We haven’t censored the work or anything,†Avery insisted. “In fact, it’s showing here right now, about 200 yards from my office.â€
Serrano (no relation to Andres Serrano, whose “Piss Christ,†a photograph of a crucifix immersed in a bottle of urine, was a focus of recent congressional attempts to regulate the content of federally funded art) takes a different view.
Serrano sent out several of the flyers to members of the media and the art community with his own handwritten addition to the printed disclaimer: “The fervor of American-style fundamentalism has come knocking on my door.â€
He said the photograph in question, “Panorama--Day,†is part of a series called “The Fertility of War†in which he uses phallic and other symbols to explore the patriarchic nature of modern society.
The series depicts tiny sculpted dioramas seen under various lighting. In “Panorama--Day,†two serpentine columns, sculpted in a material resembling marble, support a roof over a stone floor and an empty chair. A desolate desert landscape, lit by a dawn sky, is in the background.
The columns were described by Serrano as “very stylized, actually sort of elegant. . . . They’re not dildos or anything.†The image is one of his most popular, added Serrano, who said it was included in the survey exhibition “Avant-Garde in the Eighties†at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1986.
It also was part of a group show in San Francisco that included work by Andres Serrano.
Rafael Serrano believes that fallout from the Andres Serrano “Piss Christ†controversy precipitated the decision to remove his photograph from the Cypress College flyer. “I think it’s obviously connected,†he said. “I don’t think this would have happened a year ago.â€
While he said his photographs are “not exactly digestible by everyone,†Serrano said he has not run into public controversy before although, he added, his photographs were rejected because of content several years ago for exhibit in a Los Angeles bank gallery.
Robert Hardy, who has been director of the Cypress College Fine Arts Gallery for 22 years, believes the rejection of the Serrano work stems at least in part from a taboo against depicting male genitalia.
There is “no better way to cause some flak than have some male parts exposed,†Hardy said. “We can have female nudes in every possible lascivious position, and we would have no flak whatsoever.â€
Serrano concurred. “People have a hard time with phallic symbols,†he said. “It’s more frightening, for whatever reason, than female genital images.â€
But Avery said the decision to pull the Serrano photograph was not influenced by the recent arts funding controversy or by any belief that depicting male sexual organs is more objectionable than depicting female genitalia. “I guess you could have bad taste in either gender,†he said.
Gallery director Hardy said he first saw the Serrano photograph in slide form and did not anticipate any problems until he saw a copy of the original flyer. Then, “it sort of ran through my mind†that the phallic symbolism might become an issue, he said.
The decision to pull the photograph came as a surprise to Robert Johnson, a Cypress College photography instructor who curated the show and selected the works for the flyer. “I just found it strange that a sculptural image in a photograph†would spark the reaction it did, he said.
“It came up right at the end, so there was no time to substitute another image,†Johnson said--although, he added, he is not sure any of the other Serrano photographs would have been any more acceptable to college officials.
Johnson said he considers the decision to remove the photograph to be a form of censorship “to a small degree, certainly.†But he said he has not been asked to remove any works from the show itself.
The college president said he does not normally have to approve exhibit publicity but he decided to intervene in this case after a copy of the flyer was brought to him by a concerned Rosemary James, the school’s public information officer.
Avery, Johnson and Hardy all say there have been no complaints about the show, “Frailty of Power,†which opened Oct. 24 and continues through Nov. 16. Serrano and the other artists are scheduled to speak in the gallery Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
