Dubin has impressively documented a decade's developments, until now chronicled mostly in bits and pieces. His
facts are well researched and marshaled; he writes with a sense of historical background, and he has all the players
knowledgeably pegged. His account, for instance, of the feckless John Frohnmayer, the embattled former chairman
of the National Endowment for the Arts, trapped in the pressure cooker that the job has become, is masterly. And
as a map of the minefields that beset artists who would venture beyond the boundaries of conventional taste, this
book is important.
--New York Times Book Review
Dubin's new book . . . is a highly readable, scholarly and compelling case against limiting expression.
--New City Times
[Dubin] recaps the furor raised by such well-publicized works as David K. Nelson's inflammatory portrait of
late Chicago mayor Harold Washington in women's underwear, Robert Mapplethorpe's homoerotic photographs, and Andres
Serrano's `blasphemous' Piss Christ. . . . Accessible and paced with page-turning immediacy--an excellent overview
of what happens when the avant-garde art world meets the conservative right.
--Kirkus Reviews
. . . Arresting Images provides a fresh look at the social, political and psychological forces influencing the
American art world today. Recommended.
--Library Journal
Publisher web site, October, 2002.
Summary
Although art may sometimes shock us, so do many recent attempts to regulate it. Increasingly contemporary art
displays new values and beliefs that may disturb or even frighten viewers.
In Chicago, a painting of the late Mayor Harold Washington in women's underwear was seized by outraged politicians
and the police. The National Endowment for the Arts rescinded funds it had pledged to a New York City exhibit confronting
the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. The Corcoran Gallery balked at mounting a retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe's
photographs, some of which depicted homoerotic scenes or nude children. In Florida, a music store owner and 2 Live
Crew were prosecuted for the alleged obscenity of a record album.
Drawing upon extensive interviews, a broad sampling of media accounts, legal documents and his own observations
of important events, Steven Dubin surveys visual art, photography and film, as well as artistic upstarts such as
video and performance art. He examines both the nature of art work which disarms its viewers and the social reaction
to it--the dual meaning of arresting images. Dubin combines the eye of someone familiar with art and the rigor
of a social scientist with insights about contemporary society and politics.