For several weeks earlier this year, an odd battle was waged in the halls of the U.S. Capitol over a controversial work of art by a high school student placed there after an art competition in St. Louis. At issue is whether the Architect of the Capitol had the right to direct the permanent removal of the painting, or whether doing so violated the student’s (or his Congressman's) First Amendment Rights. That student, and the Congressman, have now gone to U.S. District Court in Washington, DC to get an answer. As in the past, strong feelings on all sides about police officers in particular have sharpened the debate about how, when, and whether the government can be selective in its displays of expressive visual art. With that said, the ostensibly retroactive application of Capitol rules to disqualify a painting that had previously passed those very same guidelines seems unlikely to pass First Amendment muster.
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Topics:
U.S. House of Representatives,
Richard Serra,
First Amendment,
Tilted Arc,
Ferguson Missouri,
St. Louis,
William Lacy Clay,
Eugene Volokh,
Dave Reichert,
Duncan Hunter,
Capitol,
Michael Brown,
Tip O'Neill
Back in June, sculptor Anish Kapoor installed the sculpture Dirty Corner on the grounds of the famous palace there. Kapoor, who can’t seem to avoid public controversy over his work, saw the sculpture first become the object of debate with regard to its form itself, specifically, the suggestion that the shape of the large work was anatomical. Kapoor coyly fostered speculations about what it was meant to represent, but ultimately demurred that his “work has multiple interpretive possibilities." With recent vandalism and a court order that he remove the graffiti, however, the story has turned into one more about free expression and compelled speech. So far, it does not have a happy ending.
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Topics:
Rock Fan,
Versailles,
The Art Newspaper,
Fabien Bouglé,
Ku Klux Klan,
Dirty Corner,
Graffiti Art,
France,
Williams College,
Fleur Pellerin,
Nazis,
Palace of Versailles,
Confederate Flag,
Richard Serra,
Catherine Pégard,
refugee crisis,
Williams College Museum of Art,
First Amendment,
Yardbird Suite,
Anish Kapoor,
François Hollande,
vandalism,
anti-Semitic,
Graffiti,
Amherst College,
Tilted Arc
