How can a painting shock the viewer? How can anyone be scandalized by a picture hanging on a gallery wall? The answers cannot be strictly based on nudity–artists have painted and sculpted nudes for thousands of years and, academically, every artist begins with a nude model. Art becomes controversial when it challenges the viewer’s expectations. Considering controversial art through the ages, I have composed the TroysArt list of history’s 10 most shocking paintings.
Olympia by Manet, public domain.
Olympia, 1863, by Edouard Manet
One of the world’s best and most beloved paintings, Edouard Manet’s Olympia caused the biggest art scandal of the 19th Century. For not only the revolutionary treatment of the subject but also the technical skill in which she is rendered, it is clear that this is not a painting of a goddess or a mythological woman, which were traditional pretenses for nude paintings. Manet has depicted a prostitute, placing the viewer in the position of the client, the artwork’s construction inviting the viewer’s gaze to land on the sitter’s hand. The Paris Salon of 1865 was in uproar. The painting was panned by critics and met with disdain, jeers, and laughter from the public. It had to be hung at the ceiling for fear of vandalism.
In my opinion, Manet is history’s finest painter. This painting is from a long line of similar compositions such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino. I did my own composition, seen at this link: The Bone Man.
Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet, public domain.
L’Origine du Monde (Origin of the World) 1866, by Gustave Courbet
It’s a vagina. And not just a suggested pubic region but detailed, realistic genitalia done in an era when women were almost exclusively painted in an idealized way. When the Origin of the World was painting it was not well-known and did not generate controversy due to its exhibition history. The painting was not seen publicly until 1988 as it was first owned by a Turkish diplomat who only invited close friends to view it. Now that this painting is revealed, no other credible artist has so efficiently crossed the line from fine art to pornography, and in a age when pornography was not so much thing–he did it in oil.
Today the painting is viewed as objectifying women. In 2014, performance artist Deborah de Robertis got naked in front of the painting at the Musee d’Orsay and spread her legs for shocked museum attendees–a performance I’m glad we all missed.
Madame X by John Singer Sargent [Public domain]
Madame X, 1884, by John Singer Sargent
It takes a lot to scandalize someone in the modern era. But for a 23-year-old socialite in 1884 Paris all it took was for John Singer Sargent to paint her strapless. When the portrait was unveiled at the 1884 Paris Salon it scandalized the sitter, Virginie Gautreau. Sargent had painted a strap of her gown dangling from her shoulder which suggested the aftermath of sexual activity. And while there were nudes in the exhibit that year, her standing in society made the suggestion entirely inappropriate. Her reputation was so maligned that she and her mother demanded that the painting be removed from the exhibition and destroyed. The painting is a far cry from the pieces above from the same city and roughly the same era, but a world apart when considering the articulated societal hierarchy at the time. By the way, Sargent eventually repainted the questionable strap and that is the way it hangs in the MET’s permanent collection.
Link to the TroysArt blog post about the painting here, it’s quite a story: John Singer Sargent Painted Her Strapless
For more about Virginie Gautreau, see the TroysArt post She WAS John Singer Sargent’s Madame X.
Students Wrestling Nude by Eakins, public domain.
Students Wrestling in the Nude, 1883, Thomas Eakins
Considered by many as the most important American painter, Thomas Eakins was a pioneer in not only painting but photography. And his work was scandalous from top to bottom. His realistic medical canvas known as The Gross Clinic is considered his most scandalous and was deemed too graphic for public view. But it is in his depictions of nudity that challenged the norms of Gilded Age propriety during his time. In an era shocked by a glimpse of ankle, he frankly and unapologetically depicted naked people in a straightforward and unidealized way. In 1886, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art fired him from teaching when he pulled the loincloth off of a male model. This considered, it is an entire body of Eakins’ work that, aside from his medical paintings grossing people out, was far too progressive for his time and even our time. A 2005 biography alleges that Eakins’ niece committed suicide after being molested by him. In 2021, over 200 artists and philanthropists signed an open letter to the city of Philadelphia to have Eakins removed from tributes and exhibits due to his shocking photographs, particularly African-American girl nude, reclining on couch which has already been removed from public display.
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , Pablo Picasso, public domain.
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, by Pablo Picasso
I think of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon as controversial because I am taught to. Considered one of the most important paintings of the 20th Century, when the piece was first exhibited in 1916 it caused an uproar. Depicting women in a nontraditional manner, we are confronted with five prostitutes from a brothel in Barcelona. Sure, hookers as subject matter is frowned upon in the artsy fartsy set but it was also the style in which Picasso depicted them. Coming from the curvaceous and voluptuous Art Nouveau period, people became enraged with the harsh cubist style and the disruption of representational order and perspective. Even Picasso’s buddy Matisse called the painting “hideous”. And like every great artist, there is current woke talk about Picasso’s objectification of women–good luck cancelling Picasso, y’all.
The Fleet’s In!, Paul Cadmus, fair use.
The Fleet’s In!, 1934, by Paul Cadmus
The Fleet’s In! ignited a political firestorm that branded Paul Cadmus’ career for a lifetime. The painting featured sailors drinking and soliciting women and men, with suggested homosexuality through symbolism. A blond man wearing a red tie conveyed his availability through a well-known queer visual code, makes a pass at the marine who accepts his cigarette. Naval officers demanded the painting be confiscated from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Cadmus was the subject of art world adoration in the 1930s, but homosexual subject matter contributed to his steady decline into obscurity. I love his style and his work. But even after gay magazines of the 1970s created a renewed attention, gay men often criticized the violent nature of his scenes.
Torso Series (Victor Hugo), Warhol, fair use.
Torso Series (Victor Hugo), 1977, Andy Warhol
Vincent Fremont, who worked with Warhol for most of his career was known to have said that Andy “always got people to take their clothes off!” But, in my opinion, at some point Andy Warhol worked so hard to be shocking that things just weren’t shocking any longer. When his Torso series was released, colleagues and critics just labeled Andy as a voyeur. But as homosexuality was a criminal offense at the time, some images were considered too shocking to be exhibited for fear of arrest. And Andy wasn’t that brave. “The torsos were for the museums,” explains Fremont, “and the sex parts were more private; they were never shown in his lifetime.” I think collectors still keep the more voyeuristic pieces under wraps.
XYZ, Mapplethorpe, fair use.
XYZ, 1978, by Robert Mapplethorpe
When considering Robert Mapplethorpe, one particular work doesn’t come to mind but yet a body of work. His most controversial pieces document the gay male BDSM subculture, primarily in the 1970s. These images made him posthumously scandalous, a political target, and ground zero in a First Amendment clash over the legal definition of art and obscenity. Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, a 1989 exhibit, ignited a fire that burned across the art world. Because the exhibit had been partially sponsored by federal funds and the National Endowment for the Arts, the exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC was abruptly shuttered. In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and its director Dennis Barrie were charged with obscenity. Because of the media frenzy, Mapplethorpe became a household word and prices for his pieces launched into the art stratosphere.
Piss Christ, Andres Serrano, fair use.
Piss Christ, 1987, by Andreas Serrano
Plain and simple, Andreas Serrano is a shock artist who is famous for being famous and famous for manufacturing controversy. He is to art what Kathy Griffin is to comedy. Most known for Piss Christ, a photograph of a crucifix in a glass of his own pee, his large-scale photographs incorporate corpses and bodily fluids such as semen, urine, feces, and menstrual blood. After it was revealed that National Endowment for the Arts funding went to exhibitions of Piss Christ, Serrano received death threats and lost his publicly funded grants. Though why Serrano, who sells his atrocities for hundreds of thousands of dollars, needs public money is a fair question. The NEA has never quite recovered from the Piss Christ controversy as it brought government art funding to the national conversation. In my eyes, this is the biggest art scandal of the 20th Century.
Fingers between Legs, Jeff Koons, fair use.
Fingers between Legs, 1990, by Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons is one of the biggest mega artists of the 20th Century and, in my opinion, one of the biggest art scams. He’s to art what Joel Osteen is to church. Anyway, controversy is a great way to get your name in the rags, which his Made in Heaven series surely accomplished. When the question of the line between erotic art and porn arrises, it is Koons who has most adroitly pushed the line. With works like Dirty Ejaculation and Ilona’s Asshole, he and his porn star ex-wife Cicciolina made porn for fancy galleries and called it art, charging millions to fawning collectors.
The artworks here are listed in chronological order so I would not be responsible to name them 1 to 10. Which is most shocking to you? Are there any not listed that I should have included?
This list is posted in conjunction with the blog post xxx in which I ask bigger questions in relation to lines between art and pornography.