Piss Christ and the Culture Wars
One photograph, congressional fury, and the NEA under fire
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ' — a crucifix immersed in the artist's urine — ignited a firestorm over public arts funding, drawing denunciations from the U.S. Senate, vandalism, and death threats that continue decades later.
Awarded a prize partly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Serrano's 1987 photograph became a lightning rod when senators brandished it as evidence that public money was funding blasphemy. The ensuing campaign reshaped the NEA and hardened the American culture wars.
The work has been physically attacked more than once — a print was smashed by protesters in France in 2011 — even as defenders argue its meaning is ambiguous and its target the commercialisation of the sacred. It remains one of the most contested images in the history of American art.