Results for “obscenity”
Rokudenashiko and Japan's Obscenity Law
Artist Megumi Igarashi (Rokudenashiko) became the first woman tried for obscenity in Japan after distributing 3D scan data of her own anatomy to crowdfund a decorated kayak. The court called the kayak pop art — but convicted her over the data.
The Perfect Moment: The Cincinnati Obscenity Trial
In 1990 the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and its director Dennis Barrie were criminally charged with obscenity for showing Robert Mapplethorpe's touring retrospective 'The Perfect Moment' — the first such prosecution of a U.S. museum. A jury acquitted them.
The Conviction of Stass Paraskos
After a 1966 exhibition in Leeds, painter Stass Paraskos was prosecuted and convicted for obscenity — one of the last artists in Britain successfully charged under the old vagrancy statutes.
Megumi Igarashi (Rokudenashiko)
A Japanese manga artist and sculptor working under the name Rokudenashiko ('good-for-nothing girl'), Igarashi makes playful work from the form of her own genitalia to demystify a cultural taboo. In 2014 she became the first woman in Japan tried on obscenity charges after distributing 3D scan data of her vulva — used to crowdfund a decorated 'vagina kayak'. A court ruled the kayak was pop art, not obscene, but convicted her over the digital data; the fine was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2020.
Robert Mapplethorpe
American photographer whose refined, provocative images of flowers, portraits, and homoerotic and BDSM subjects made him a defining figure of late-20th-century art. His touring retrospective 'The Perfect Moment' ignited the U.S. culture wars and led to the first criminal obscenity trial of an American museum.
Stass Paraskos
Cypriot-born British painter and teacher who, after a 1966 exhibition in Leeds, became one of the last artists convicted for obscenity under Britain's old vagrancy laws — a prosecution now seen as a milestone in the retreat of such statutes.
Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati)
The Cincinnati institution put on trial for obscenity in 1990 over its Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition.