![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZfh_fCQagWb6Yd1xHKVx7y5f7xONFJ8Y7ovdAmbLsUMWHRkEbAvLynl2bIC4FxTX9SZnMoGLv6JKWgAMbsvnsyxuZQsObLIA33N3JGiIUNUyyOwCWioYwN5-nyWBOaaWppILsux4ATJHc/s200/Piss+Christ.jpg)
Piss Christ is Andres Serrano's work from 1987 that is a photo of a plastic crucifix in a glass of his urine. It is arguably the most controversial artwork ever - and rightfully so.
I am all for freedom of expression and trying different things in art. But I could see how some might be offended by Piss Christ. In the late '80s, others were offended doubly because the National Endowment for the Arts paid Serrano for peeing in a glass.
When censorship was a popular debate in the late '80s and early '90s, Robert Mapplethorpe's name was more at the center of the debate than Serrano's. Mapplethorpe died in 1989, however, and most of the arguing with him surrounded his homosexual work. To me, Piss Christ takes the cake for controversy.
Is Piss Christ blasphemy or art? I say it's probably either both or neither.
I suppose Mapplethorpe and Piss Christ are back on the Snooze Button Generation's radar because of a new book by Patti Smith called "Just Kids" that's about her close relationship with Mapplethorpe.
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