Art, Life, and the Connecting Corridor
In last week’s opinion column “Between the Lines: Censorship or Good Sense?” editor Kristin Palpini asked readers for their thoughts on a painting depicting police officers as feral pigs, which was recently removed from a pedestrian tunnel at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. after months of controversy and a tug-of-war over whether the art — created by Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School senior David Pulpus — should be on display. Is it censorship to remove the painting? Do some messages not belong in the Capitol? Here’s what you thought:
Censorship … obviously … it is the artist’s opinion … he made art to depict his opinion. This is what artists do. To hide it is censorship. Rembrandt painted the politicians of his day as drunkards and fools. Hieronymus Bosch painted everyone as beasts and going to hell. So why is this not as important?
— Nancy Bryant, via Facebook
Yes, the painting should remain. Unless I’m mistaken, that is public property, and free speech is protected on public property. If someone with an opposing position wants to hang art that represents that position, they too should have that right. Taking it down is a part of the slippery slope that could be the undoing of a principal part of the First Amendment.
— Mark Alan Miller, via email
The theme of the painting or its artistic merit is not the issue for me. Any politically charged work of art does not belong in a government building. A museum or gallery is the appropriate place. A government building is an everyday workplace and place of occasional business for people of all stripes. A depiction, especially as aggressive as [this one] is visually and politically, jars the senses whether or not one agrees with its subject. Some people don’t want to be jarred any more than is necessary in transacting government business … You art people seem to believe that anything goes any place at any time. As artists, sensitivity is what you’re about, right? But, I know, because the message is deemed so absolute in its nobility and import, that respect and civility will have to take a back seat.
— Jay Tee, via email
Isn’t it a form of free speech? We’ve elected a president who shows no qualms about degrading all different kinds of people, so I say at this point anything goes.
— Patty Silva, via Facebook
