Essays explore the censure of artworks by famous masters -- Michelangelo, Veronese, Goya, Daumier, Manet -- as well as the censored art of less familiar figures, such as contemporary artists in China. The rejection of modernism as an allegedly corrupt and dangerous style is considered both in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and in McCarthy era Texas in the 1950s. The recent debates in America over government sponsorship for the arts are also discussed, as well as the claims raised about the allegedly pornographic content of work by contemporary artists Wojnarowicz and Mapplethorpe.
Suspended License demonstrates that recent controversies over sponsorship, pornography, sacrilege, and aesthetic integrity in modern art are not without historical precedent, and also shows that many of the works now universally regarded as masterpieces have been the objects of censorious action in the past. Numerous illustrations contribute greatly to the reader's understanding of this important subject.
