Summary Of Piss Christ By Andres Serrano

Art and politics or art and religions usually create controversy to not only art critics but also viewers and audience. History has proved that there are a lot of artworks, even though they are creative and sometimes beautiful, caused so much anger and protests so that those artworks needed to be removed from the exhibitions. “Piss Christ” by the American artist Andres Serrano is one of the most controversial art pieces in the 1980s until now. The article by Huffington Post addresses this artwork and the arguments it has created. “Piss Christ” is a photograph taken by Andres Serrano. It was publicly exhibited the first time in New York in 1987 and immediately caused a lot of arguments and anger from the viewers, especially Catholics. Andres Serrano took the photo of a small plastic crucifix submerged in a jar of his urine. Catholics found this as a disrespect of their deity being soaked in “someone’s bodily fluids”. Furthermore, Serrano later won a $15,000 prize which was funded by the National
I find merit in this artwork that it needs to be shown more to the world. Despite the religious subject matter, the way Andres Serrano brings it to the viewers is different from other artworks of the same subject. Moreover, the urine makes the color realistic, more to the color of blood, and it creates a sense of mystery. Even though it is a photo of a crucifix soaked in urine, as Serrano says “So if ‘Piss Christ’ upsets you, maybe it’s a good thing to think about what happened on the cross.” I think he approaches the religious subject with a natural and realistic manner. He speaks the truth in a creative and artistic way. The message here is to bring deity such as Jesus Christ closer to humans, as there is no difference between god and human beings. It is hard to distinguish if this artwork is a photo or a painting since the saturation is too deep, which makes it special and outstanding among other art