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Blasphemy : art that offends / S. Brent Plate.

By: Publication details: London : Black Dog, 2006.Description: 189 pages : illustrations (colour) ; 29 cmISBN:
  • 9781904772538
  • 1904772536
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: The power of offensive images -- chapter 1. Defining and delimiting blasphemy -- chapter 2. The power of images meets religious and political power -- chapter 3. Blaspheming the gods of modernity.
Summary: The issue of censorship has never been hotter. The boundary between artistic freedom and incitement is becoming ever more blurred, and the modes of objection by political and religious fundamentalists to the art they deem offensive are turning ever more extreme. God, Mohammed, Jesus, the Quran and the Torah have all been at one point or another subjected to artistic interpretation, as have more liberal values, such as friendship, education and the nation-state. The responses these images have provoked have ranged from indifference, to, in the case of Theo Van Gogh, murder. Through an examination of a broad range of contentious imagery in art, this book questions the status of blasphemy in a world ever more divided in its views of what is acceptable, and provides an intriguing vantage point from which to view the interrelations between religion, politics and the visual arts.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-185) and index.

Introduction: The power of offensive images -- chapter 1. Defining and delimiting blasphemy -- chapter 2. The power of images meets religious and political power -- chapter 3. Blaspheming the gods of modernity.

The issue of censorship has never been hotter. The boundary between artistic freedom and incitement is becoming ever more blurred, and the modes of objection by political and religious fundamentalists to the art they deem offensive are turning ever more extreme. God, Mohammed, Jesus, the Quran and the Torah have all been at one point or another subjected to artistic interpretation, as have more liberal values, such as friendship, education and the nation-state. The responses these images have provoked have ranged from indifference, to, in the case of Theo Van Gogh, murder. Through an examination of a broad range of contentious imagery in art, this book questions the status of blasphemy in a world ever more divided in its views of what is acceptable, and provides an intriguing vantage point from which to view the interrelations between religion, politics and the visual arts.