Spiritual America
Date: Category:October 2009 [[:Category:|Category:]] [[:Category:|Category:]]
Region: Category:United Kingdom [[:Category:|Category:]] [[:Category:|{location3}]]
Subject: Social Opinion Child Pornography [[:Category:|Category:]]
Medium: Category: Photograph/Photograph [[:Category:|Category:]] [[:Category:|Category:]]
Artist: Richard Prince
Confronting Bodies: Tate modern, Richard Prince, Scotland Yards (London Metropolitan Police)
Dates of Action: 2009
Location: London, England
The Incident:
After exhibiting his pieces in multiple US Museums (the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2007-2008) and at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2008)), Richard Prince was censored at the Tate Modern during the “Pop Life”. He was censored by the metropolitan police, also known as the Scotland yards, for one of his most iconic pieces “Spiritual America”- Prince’s image of 10 year old Brook Shields posing naked in a tub during the filming of one of her early movies. The reasons given as to why this particular piece was removed from the exhibit was due to its “disturbing child porn attributes” and how this devaluates the moral standards of society. Ironically it is believed it really wasn’t museum visitors who tipped the police on this matter rather the London press and media.
Results of Incident: Although Menzel and Hrabal were allowed to continue their careers, they were closely watched and would need to make compromises with censors. Eventually these difficulties led Menzel to move to theater.
The film was not released until the fall of Communism in 1990, when it saw great success at the box office.
Source: Huffington Post article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/spiritual-america-censors_b_309278.html [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]]