As a national experiment able and eager to invent itself from a relatively clean slate, and as a democracy open to multiple voices, America has been and continues to be a country where the nature and purpose of art is hotly debated. In his recently published book, Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture, Pulitzer-prize winning cultural historian Michael Kammen turns his insightful attention to American controversies over the visual arts to discover what these controversies reveal about the nature of America and its public discourse.

Kammen’s examination includes controversies familiar to most informed readers — Diego Rivera’s murals for Rockefeller Center or the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, for example — but also finds lesser known controversies — such as John Singer’s Sargent’s own troubles with murals or the initial Washington monument, a half-nude neo-classical statue — equally fruitful for his scholarly inquest.

This meticulously researched and cogently argued book is not another repeat of the history of American art. Kammen’s book follows a unique trajectory because Kammen’s interest in the subject is as a cultural rather than art historian. He is more interested in how the public talks about art than the art itself; so that in Visual Shock discussions of the art that changed the art world give way to the art controversies that changed the way Americans discuss art, and what those discussion say about America.

Kammen divides his investigation into nine chapters, each of which follows a chronological examination of a particular form of art controversy — from issues of monumentalism and memorialization and nudity and decency, which were prominent in the 19th century, to the debates on public art, political art and the nature of the museums in more recent times.

Within the scope of the entire work, Kammen identifies four main themes that interest him as a cultural historian: the way art controversies are symptomatic of social change in the U.S.; the debate over art’s role in a democratic society and expectation such a society has of art and architecture; the impulse for the origins of art controversies and how they have changed over time; and the outcome, negative or positive, of controversies.

Kammen’s book reveals that America has a fairly short cultural memory and that what causes an initial stir and even ideological battle usually becomes, within a generation, an established part of our cultural framework. Many of us will know the controversy regarding Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, but fewer will remember or have learned that practically every other monument along D.C.’s Mall — now endeared landmarks of our country’s capitol — was controversial as well.

What moves America to discourse also changes over time. In the 19th century, issues of nudity and moral decency were hotly debated, even when, as in the case of Thomas Eakins’ use of nude models in a classroom, the offending practices occurred in non-public settings. In our own time, nudity per se rarely causes a stir (BYU’s selective editing of a Rodin exhibit in 1997 being an exception Kammen notes) and issues of moral decency spring up only in the case of government funding, as in the furor of NEA funding during the 80s.

As a cultural historian, Kammen is particularly interested in public art, where the full force of community discussion takes place. His chapter, “The Dimension and Dilemmas of Public Sculpture,” which examines controversial public sculptures such as Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc” in lower Manhattan, is particularly interesting reading. Another element of the public realm Kammen illuminates is the changing nature of the Museum, which Kammen examines in a chapter in its own right. The author demonstrates that museums recover rather quickly from any initial uproar over a controversial exhibit and usually achieve higher turnout because of the controversy. Many museums, galleries, and artists understand this and create their own uproar; and when they don’t, the media, knowing controversy makes for good copy, often stokes the flames of discontent.

Whatever part of his topic Kammen examines, his arguments are always well illustrated with particular cases. Too often, however, what he illustrates in prose is not illustrated by images, an unfortunate deficiency in a book whose main focus is the visual arts.

For the most part, Kammen keeps his own feelings about the merits of the artworks discussed to himself and does his job as historian in parsing out the factors that influenced the controversies examined. At times Kammen’s writing style can be overly academic and his expositions can be lengthy, causing the casual reader to wish for a condensed version. But whether skimmed over for its salient kernels or examined in detail for its double-helix intricacies, Visual Shock has a great deal to offer both specialized art audiences and general ones interested in American culture. The book will teach you as much about America as it will about art.

Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture
by Michael Kammen
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Knopf (September 26, 2006)
ISBN: 1400041295

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.