AHIS_10001
ART HISTORY: THEORY AND CONTROVERSY
“Great art requires total freedom to provoke and challenge where necessary. Take away
from artists the freedom to produce whatever their artistic visions guide them to create,
and you take away what makes art so special and unique in the first place.” Is this a
valid statement? Should art works be free of the restrictions imposed by laws and social
conventions? Alternatively, is there a case to be made for censorship in the arts? Your
answer may refer to contemporary ethics/censorship debates (some possible case
studies, Ai Wei Wei, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Andres Serrano, Chris Ofili, Juan Davila,
Robert Mapplethorpe), and/or historical case studies of censored/ethically challenging
art works that have been made in the past (e.g. Michelangelo, Caravaggio).