Role Of Self Censorship In Art

Issues of Self-Censorship in Art Institutions Art has a long history of being censored by the government, different communities of people, and museums and even through self-censorship. To understand the idea of self-censorship committed by museums, the evolution of censorship is essential. In Christopher B. Steiner words, censorship “attempts to critique or control the dissemination of images or knowledge from an institution which the group perceives to be unilaterally powerful and from which the groups feels excluded.” Using this as a basis to define what censorship is in the context of museums will help expand on the multiple layers of what the issue is and how it is addressed in different countries and cultural institutions. It also needs
to be understood that the battle over censorship has “nothing to do with aesthetics”, but instead deals with the clashing of “social class, religious, political and ideological” issues. A lot of the time there is prejudice against certain types of artworks because people believe that institutions of the public domain should not show work that they find offensive.