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Artist responsible for "Piss Christ" guest of Pope in Vatican This week the Pope welcomed artists to the Sistierne Chapel, reminding them that true beauty inspires the desire for God, and renders glory to Him, for the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Vatican Museums’ Collection of Modern Art by Pope St. Paul VI.One of them was Andres Serrano. There is nothing beautiful about his work.He is notorious for "Piss Christ", a photo of a crucifix submerged in his own urine which was destroyed by protestors in 2012, only for the a restored/or replaced version to be sold at...

Twenty-five years later, and an artwork's power to enflame is undiminished.Beginning on the 27th of this month, the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in Manhattan will open an exhibit titled Body and Spirit: Andres Serrano 1987-2012. The exhibit, which runs for a month, features a range of works from the controversial artist, including the infamous Piss Christ (1987), a work that consists of a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in what is supposedly a jar of the artist's own urine. The gallery's press release describes the work in the following terms: Piss Christ is a potent work that engages the...

The controversial “Piss Christ” artwork Sen. Alfonse D’Amato once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” is coming to New York, and security is being heavily ramped- up at the gallery that will show the piece. Andres Serrano’s work — a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine” — first ignited controversy in 1989 when D’Amato complained to the US Senate that it was an “outrage,” an “indignity” and a “piece of trash” that had been funded by taxpayers. Serrano had won a $15,000 prize for his work, backed in part by the National Endowment for the...

The controversial “Piss Christ” artwork Sen. Alfonse D’Amato once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” is coming to New York, and security is being heavily ramped- up at the gallery that will show the piece. Andres Serrano’s work — a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine” — first ignited controversy in 1989 when D’Amato complained to the US Senate that it was an “outrage,” an “indignity” and a “piece of trash” that had been funded by taxpayers. Serrano had won a $15,000 prize for his work, backed in part by the National Endowment for the...

I thought that this topic might make for a lively debate in the comments. Artist Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" photo has caused more anguish, more anger that just about any piece of art in American history. Yesterday, while on display in France, it was destroyed by a fundamentalist Christian group: Controversy has followed the work ever since, but reached an unprecedented peak on Palm Sunday when it was attacked with hammers and destroyed after an "anti-blasphemy" campaign by French Catholic fundamentalists in the southern city of Avignon.The violent slashing of the picture, and another Serrano photograph of a meditating nun,...

The way in which we view art is turning out to be another means by which right and left divide. Both the highbrow among us who are searching for beauty and the lowbrow, such as your servant, who like pretty shiny things, are at odds with savants who tell us we are missing the point. Unfortunately, these elites also bring to mind the observation of the late, great Redd Foxx as his alter ego Fred Sanford: “Beauty may only be skin deep but ugly goes straight to the bone.” “For us as radical teachers, what is most important is less...

The half-dozen contestants, 20-something aspiring artists all, enter the famous Phillips de Pury art auction house. Mr. de Pury himself ushers them into the special room where they are presented with a collection of paintings by Andres Serrano, the man who came to fame in 1989 with the ghastly painting, sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts, depicting a crucifix dunked in a jar of urine. They are hugely impressed. The final painting they are shown is just that -- the original "Piss Christ." They are in awe, quietly expressing their amazement at the talent. And then the door...

Until now the Pellicano wiretapping case has seemed the kind of down-and-dirty imbroglio that could only happen in Hollywood, where a private eye's underworld patois could impress movie people familiar with noir clichés, allured by real physical danger and accustomed to getting whatever they want. But confidential F.B.I. records show that the scandal's tentacles have extended beyond show-business figures to reach people prominent in the rarified worlds of fine art and classical music. Among the government's most important witnesses, the F.B.I. records suggest, are Adam D. Sender, a prominent collector of contemporary art and a wealthy hedge-fund manager..........hired Anthony Pellicano,...