Final Exam Review

Question 1

1st Amendment

Answer 1

• U.S. Bill of Rights
  * Article One- Freedom of Expression
  * Miller Test- cases are judged according to 3 different parts as to whether First Amendment protects it/if it’s consider obscene. Comes from Miller vs. CA 1973
  *
  1. A work is considered obscene if it is found to appeal to the prurient (i.e. decadent, debased, debauched, deviant) interests of the observer (average person) in its day.
  2. Does it depict sexual conduct (acts, behaviors) in a patently (obviously) offensive way?
  3. A work may be considered obscene if it has no serious artistic value.

Question 2

WPA

Answer 2

• WPA- stands for Works Progress Administration
  * hired artists during the depression
  * 1930s
  * Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Question 3

Espionage Act

Answer 3

1917 Espionage Act- can’t send seditious material through the mail, results in shut down of The Masses

Question 4

Pornography

Answer 4

depiction of explicit subject matter for sexual excitement (NOT automatically obscene)

Question 5

obscenity

Answer 5

words, images, or actions that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time (legal definition)

Question 6

Paul Cadmus

Answer 6

• self-portrait
  
  • Dust Bowl era- drought
  • Great Depression
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt
    
    • WPA- works progress admin
      
      • FFAP- Federal Fine Arts Project
      • PWAP- public works of art project
    • ‘alphabet soup’
    • artists hired to paint murals in post offices, etc.
  • Cadmus worked for WPA
    
    • 2 works in 3 month time period:
      
      • The Fleet’s In 1934
      • Greenwich Village Cafeteria 1934
    • $34/a week
    • To be shown at Corcoran Museum
  • Cadmus was gay and had a partner

Question 7

Paul Cadmus, The Fleet’s In

Answer 7

• 1930s
  * retired Navy admiral wanted it removed from display
  * ‘unflattering and inaccurate portrayal of sailors’
  * ‘real sailors on leave are sober, polite, and respectful of women’ HA!
  * Riverside Park NYC
  * sailors frequented this park
  * hanky panky! Gay and straight.
  * boozing
  * carousing
  * womanizing
  * clothes really tight- butts are emphasized
  * homoerotic interplay
  * a dandy is shown- passing as straight but actually gay
  * offering cigarette is a code
  
  • Fleet’s In was removed from exhibit, Assistant Secretary took it home
    
    • when he passed away, he gave it to the Alibi Club- an elite Navy Club
    • removed from a later exhibition in San Francisco as well
      
      • Navy official- ‘the censorship only gave publicity to the artist’
    • Cadmus credited the start of his career with getting censored
    • This work is now in the Naval History Museum, pretty popular work

Question 8

Horatio Greenough

Answer 8

• George Washington 1841
  * 1st Commission by Congress
  * commission included instructions to make it big and heroic
  * torches were to be in a circle around Washington
  * not met with great acclaim
  * he’s half naked!
  * incongruous with the image of Washington
  * Real life leaders were not shown in this way
  * humanizing
  * too big for the Capitol Rotunda
  * was moved outside- he looks cold!
  * weighs 20 tons
  * 10.5 feet high
  * Inspiration: “Jupiter and Theseus”, Jean-Auguste Ingres
  * meant to be respectful, equating Washington with Jupiter
  * he has a God-like status in our country
  * seems trivializing
  * Nathaniel Hawthorne- no one saw Washington naked- he was always very stately. Born clothed!
  * Washington was too proper and fastidious to appear in public like this
  * looks like statues of Roman generals- youth-like body doesn’t match older face
  * American public wanted to see Washington as a statesmen not a warrior
  * 1908- moved to storage with Smithsonian
  * 1964- put back on display in National Museum of American History