Mapplethorpe obscenity trial

The Event A highly publicized trial over the display of allegedly obscene art

Date September 24-October 5, 1990

Place Cincinnati, Ohio

The acquittal of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director Dennis Barrie on charges of pandering obscenity was a reaffirmation of freedom of speech protection, particularly with regard to homoerotic art, and set off a national controversy about the public funding of artworks.

In 1990, the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) exhibited popular American photographerRobert Mapplethorpe’s (1946-1989) highly erotic The Perfect Moment to great public outrage, due in part to the openly homosexual nature of much of Mapplethorpe’s work. The display resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of director Dennis Barrie on charges of pandering obscenity. Mapplethorpe, who was highly regarded for his large-scale, black-and-white portraits of celebrities and photos of flowers and nudes, photographed the human body in a manner that combined formal beauty and sexuality and included in his work homoerotic imagery and sadomasochistic acts. He was best known for his 1978 sexually explicit Portfolio X series, which resulted in national outrage because it was displayed at publicly funded exhibitions.

It should be remembered that in the early 1990’s, the pendulum was swinging toward a more politically and socially conservative America. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) had one of its highest budgets ever, $170 million, and Republicans made plans to eliminate the agency entirely. The opposition of the American Family Association and other religious organizations to Mapplethorpe’s work led to a direct attack on the NEA, which funded the Mapplethorpe exhibit. Also, since the exhibit began its national tour almost a year before it reached Cincinnati, those in that city who objected to the exhibition had plenty of time to prepare an attempt to close the exhibit under Ohio’s obscenity statute, which made it illegal to display obscene material.

The Trial

A watchdog group, Citizens for Community Values, organized a protest against Mapplethorpe’s exhibit. Hours after the opening on April 7, 1990, the CAC and Barrie were indicted by the Hamilton County Grand Jury for criminal violations of the Ohio obscenity statute for pandering obscenity and illegally displaying photographs of nude children. The trial began on September 24, with a jury made up of four men and four women and Judge F. David J. Albanese presiding. The lawyers for the CAC and Barrie were Marc D. Mezibov and H. Louis Sirkin; the prosecutors were Richard A. Castellini, Frank H. Prouty, Jr., and Melanie J. Reising.

At issue were 7 of 175 photographs, also referred to as the “Dirty Pictures” (and the name of the 2000 film about the trial), which depict children with exposed genitals and men in sadomasochistic poses. The cross-examination of witnesses by the prosecution, led by Prouty, concluded that what some people view as pornography, others view as art. The prosecutors had to convince the jury that the pictures were “obscene,” as defined by the Supreme Court in the 1973 case Miller v. California. The defense witnesses, made up of art experts, saw the pictures in the light of artistic freedom. Janet Kardon, a defense witness, viewed the photographs themselves as symmetrical and classically composed figure studies, while witnesses for the prosecution viewed the photographs as deeply offensive sexually explicit merchandise.

This debate led to the decisive questions: Who determines art and how does one know if something is art? Ultimately, Barrie and the CAC were acquitted in a much-publicized trial six months after the indictment.

Impact

The acquittal of the defendants was a reaffirmation of freedom of speech. Also, the obscenity trial served to illustrate the struggle between the liberal and conservative values of early 1990’s America. As an issue, public arts funding remained in the forefront throughout the decade, and politicians continued the debate about the government’s need to sponsor art. Indeed, some argue that the Mapplethorpe trial was a catalyst for bringing about the culture wars.

The Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts temporarily dropped funding for the CAC. Between 1990 and 1995, the NEA saw the abolishment of twenty categories of grants. Consequently, funding plummeted and attempts were made to eliminate the agency. Ultimately, however, the Mapplethorpe trial brought arts advocates together and galvanized support for the NEA and the federal role for arts support in the United States. Indeed, state legislatures across the country granted arts councils $292 million in 2000. Still, those who brought the 1990 obscenity charges against the Contemporary Arts Center claim that the trial worked to their advantage simply because their primary intention was not to close art museums but merely to force them to act responsibly in their selection of art, which, they argue, was the ultimate outcome.

Bibliography

Danto, Arthur C. Playing with the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Offers a lucid discussion of Mapplethorpe’s works. Illustrated.

Gurstein, Rochelle. “Current Debate: High Art or Hard-Core? Misjudging Mapplethorpe—the Art Scene and the Obscene.” Tikkun (November/December, 1991): 70-80. Gurstein, who teaches history and other subjects at Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan, argues against avant-garde artists such as Mapplethorpe who she believes invoke free speech rights to justify what she considers violent, dehumanizing, or pornographic works.

Merkel, Jayne. “Art on Trial.” Art in America (December, 1990): 41-46. Not only details the events of the Mapplethorpe obscenity trial but also argues that it was not so much Mapplethorpe on trial as art in America.