The gift shop in the Baltimore Museum of Art was selling souvenir postcards featuring a picture of the Andres Serrano “Piss Christ” artwork; it shows a crucifix submerged in a jar of the artist’s urine. A protest by the Catholic League led to considerable media attention, inspiring one local Catholic to buy all 13 remaining postcards. The museum, after being barraged with bad publicity, will not restock the item.
In our investigation of the museum, we found that in the aftermath of 9-11, a decision was made to remove a painting by Christopher Wool entitled “Terrorist”; it was done “out of respect to visitors’ sensibilities.” Doreen Bolger, the museum’s director, explained, “The work hasn’t changed, but our perception of it has.”
Our statement to the media said, “For years we’ve been told by the postmodernists that art has no meaning save what people attribute to it.” But Wool’s contribution proved this to be a lie: they knew exactly what he meant and they didn’t like it. So they banned it. No room for diversity here. However, we charged, “when it comes to dunking the holiest Christian symbol in urine, they withdraw their censorial knife.”
That’s because they don’t care about offending the sensibilities of Christians. And as far as the Serrano hate art is concerned, this gang likes it as much today as they did before 9-11.
We are delighted with the outcome. Thanks to league member Bob Follett for the tip.
