Is all art acceptable?
I got into this discussion about art. Should all types of art be acceptable? What if for example a pedophile commissions a sculpture reflecting his sick desires? Should such sculpture be made public by the artist who’s done it? My friend came out with another example of sick art: a painting of a Nazi torturing a child or a woman.
Another real life example caused a lot of controversy in 90% catholic country. Female artist painted male genitals hanging on a cross. I don’t need to add that she was not very popular after showing her work publicly.
Travelling through India I visited many Hindu temples with beautifully carved ‘celestial maidens’ - very attractive, almost real size carved women, mostly naked. At some point in the past, Muslim invaders smashed out many of these beautiful sculptures because their religion did not permit making image of a human form or perhaps because it just didn’t tolerate any other religion. Thanks to their actions next generations lost for ever precious works of art.. More recent example - Taliban blowing up the ancient statue of Buddha carved out in rocks of Afghanistan.
Where is the limit of what art should be made public, what should be permitted and what should remain only in a private domain or even be destroyed? Who has the rights to decide on this? Would love to know what other people think..
