Controversial Artworks That Caused a Huge Scandal

Art is meant to evoke different emotions among viewers irrespective of its medium and type. However, when it manages to stir unwelcomed emotions it becomes a controversial artwork, likely to cause a scandal.

Artists throughout history have been known to break societal barriers and norms to create something unique. However, not every piece of art has been received the same by the audience. While some managed to establish new schools of art, others caused controversies that shook the art world. Here are some of the most controversial art pieces that became popular for rubbing their audience the wrong way. 

The Origin of the World by Gustave Corbet

If we talk about controversial paintings, this Corbet painting tops the list. Female nudity has always been a taboo topic and more so in the past than it is now. We can only imagine the uproar this controversial painting by Gustave Corbet would have caused with its realistic display of female genitalia in 1866.

The artist has zoomed in on the naked thighs, genitals, and chest of a woman whose face is not visible. This century-old painting causes uproar even today and was also banned by Facebook in 2011. 

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp was one of the most significant developments in modern art. However, when the artist presented it to the Society of Independent Artists, in New York, it caused a huge uproar. Nobody was ready to accept a mass-produced male urinal signed with the name “R. Mutt” as a piece of art. The situation escalated and Duchamp even gave up his membership in the society to prove his point. 

While it was a controversial artwork, it raised several questions about society’s perception of art and what it is. He went on to disrupt the notion that art always has to be an original handmade product born out of the creative skills of the artist.

The Guitar Lesson by Balthus

Created in 1934, this painting by a renowned Polish-French artist manages to horrify the art world even today. Balthus is known as a controversial painter who explored the themes of pedophilia and explicitness in his works. However, this particular painting is supposedly the most disturbing of all his works. 

While the title suggests a guitar lesson, the actual depiction shows the guitar lying on the floor. Instead, the teacher can be seen in a compromising position with her minor student, one hand on her genitalia and the other pulling on her hair. The girl, seemingly uncomfortable, is holding the nipple of her teacher’s exposed breast.

Since the artist never made any clarifications on this controversial painting, it has been left open for interpretation. The possible indication of pedophilia and grooming in the painting has led it to stay in the vaults of several museums and galleries for almost a century now. It has only been displayed twice so far; once for fifteen days and then for a month, a few years later and it has never been put on display ever since.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso

Translated as “The Women of Avignon,” this painting depicts prostitutes from the Avignon streets of Barcelona – the home of sex workers Picasso frequented. However, the depiction of naked prostitutes is not the only reason why this piece by Pablo Picasso became a controversial artwork. 

The painting is considered a seminal work from the period that marked the shift towards modern art from traditional styles. The cubist depiction, which blatantly disregards the norms and how human female figures were traditionally painted also added to the controversy. Picasso also incorporated the intricacies of African and Iberian art with the elongated features and masks of the women. Incorporating African and Iberian aesthetics in a European painting also sparked controversies about cultural appropriation along with other reasons. With time, this Picasso painting became a significant development in Cubism and is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

Self by Mark Quinn

This self-portrait cast by Marc Quinn is an unusual artwork because it has been made using his own blood. The artist created a plaster-of-paris cast of his face and then filled it with ten fl. oz. of his blood, which is approximately the total amount of blood in an adult human body. The first sculpture was made in 1991 and since then Quinn has been creating a new sculpture every five years. All of them are preserved in frozen silicone at subzero temperatures and are supposed to remain in this state forever. 

When Quinn created this controversial artwork, he was an alcoholic. Through this sculpture, which is dependent on science and blood, he has tried to depict the dependency of human life on these elements. He creates a new sculpture every five years as an ongoing art, using the same process to reflect the forever-changing human form. Owing to various reasons, this sculpture has been a topic of contemplation and horror for many art viewers. It’s hard to forget something like this.

The Nude Maja by Francisco Goya

Another controversial artwork of a nude model that the world couldn’t digest back then came from the Spanish old master Francisco De Goya. Now considered a masterpiece, this painting led Goya to a round of questioning by the authorities because creating and collecting nude paintings was then banned in Spain. 

In addition to the nudity, it was the depiction of a maja – a lower-status Spanish woman with pubic hair that appalled the masses. Showing pubic hair in nudes was taboo and suggested sexualization. Even the model’s posture, unabashedly displaying her bare breasts and slightly parted legs, combined with her gaze that directly looks at the viewers, made it a painting ahead of its time.

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

Imagine a chapel covered with all the nude figures across its ceiling in 1541 and how it must have horrified the church. Known for its frescos by Michelangelo, the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel became a very controversial artwork when the artist decided to paint everyone nude, with their genitalia on full display. From martyrs to saints, the vindictive artist spared no one and painted a series of naked bodies next to each other.

The disgusted reaction of the church upset the lovers of Michelangelo’s art and caused a dispute. The church went ahead to rectify the controversial nude art and painted loincloths and draped fabrics to cover the private body parts of the subjects. The original work was revealed hundreds of years later during the restoration work in the 1980s.

Olympia by Edouard Manet

Considered one of the most scandalous paintings of the 19th century, Olympia by Manet shook society on its debut in the 1865 Paris Salon. It’s not that artists didn’t create nude artworks before him, but they were mostly depicted as goddesses or mythological beings. It was the first time an artist decided to depict a prostitute and to top it off, he painted it based on a live model. 

Unlike other demure females in nude paintings, this one pierces the viewers with her gaze, confronting them. Even the placement of her hands is not delicate but defiant, showing her independence and the unbridled reality of modern times. However, this was not the only time this controversial painter decided to turn the art world upside down with his controversial art. Another example is Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, depicting a nude woman with two fully dressed men on a picnic.

Dinner Party by Judy Chicago

One of the most famous feminist artworks, also became the most controversial after it was first displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. The Dinner Party is an installation artwork, honoring 39 significant women from history, where each of them got their own place at the table. Additionally, the floor of the artwork has 999 more names of women, making it a total of 1038. While the idea of this big table artwork was to uplift women, it didn’t quite go as what Judy Chicago had planned. 

What made this a controversial artwork is the references to the vulva in the entire installation art piece. Not just its big triangular shape, but even the plates are either shaped like a vulva or decorated to resemble one. The apparent and repeated resemblance to female genitalia made many people call it pornographic. The further controversies even criticized Chicago for choosing all white women except two.  One of them was a black woman who didn’t get any vulvar references and instead, her plate had designs resembling a face – suggesting color discrimination. 

Piss Christ by Andres Serrano

The discretion against any religion or God has never gone down well in history. The same happened when Andres Serrano’s photograph, Piss Christ, was noticed on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It is a plastic crucifix that Serrano had immersed in his own urine. 

The utter blasphemy not only caused a media uproar but Serrano also received death threats and backlash from politicians and the Christian community. The organization that had funded him, the National Endowment for the Arts also got its funding slashed because of their support for Serrano with the taxpayers’ money.

Controversial Art Has Forced Us to Rethink Our Perspective on Art

What becomes controversial in art is a rather subjective matter and can vary according to time, demographics, subject, and several other factors. However, one common factor that all these controversial artworks share is the power to provoke thoughts. Every time an artist created something that confused or horrified the viewers, it forced them to think and rethink. While not every controversial painting has become acceptable, they still titillate the public to think from the artist’s perspective, and to take another glance at the society around them. One famous example is Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans painting. It sparked controversy and forced people to think about the issues related to mass production and why we only consider what we consider art.