The New Rules Are All So Confusing

Piss Christ (Time photo)

It was 30 years ago, but as the cliché goes, it seems like yesterday that artist Andres Serrano displayed a photograph of Piss Christ, a crucifix submerged in the artist's urine.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art granted Piss Christ an award which included a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

The controversy was predictable, with religious conservatives decrying the work and the cognoscenti lauding its artistic expression.

Great works of art provoke, we were told, and if you are offended it says something about you, not the work itself.

Statue of Robert E. Lee, Charlottesville (CNN photo)

There is now a burgeoning movement to take down statues honoring soldiers, the flag, and other symbols of the Confederacy. Speaking as one whose ancestors were neither slave nor slaveowner, I don't have a dog in this hunt.

I will only observe that in 2017 taking offense is justification for censorship and removal or destruction of works of art. This time it's not the viewer but the work itself that is the problem.

The new rules are all so confusing.