The National Endowment for the Arts, an agency of the US Federal Government, helped to pay for Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, one of his creations that will be on display at the Body and Spirit exhibition at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery on September 27^th. I’ve included the link for those who would like to arrive early and beat the rush.

Andres Serrano is obsessed with putting photographs of his bodily fluids on display, along with the occasional corpse garnished with human excrement. In saner times, Serrano, would be recognised for what he is: someone who is mentally ill. In the twenty first century, however, he is an artist.

The same government that paid for Serrano to pee into a jam jar containing a crucifix, has piously intoned: “The U.S. deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.” I suppose the key to understanding this is in the word “others”: denigrating the religious beliefs one’s own citizens is a federally funded obligation.

From here:

Religious groups are blasting President Obama for not condemning am anti-Christian art display set to appear in New York City and one Republican lawmaker said he is “fed up with the administration’s double standard and religious hypocrisy.

“Piss Christ,” once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” will be displayed at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in Manhattan on Thursday. The artwork features a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine.”

The artwork debuted in 1989 and was funded through prize money provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The art gallery hosting the retrospective salute to Andres Serrano is privately owned.