Andres Serrano: Infamous Beauty

Andres Serrano is a photographer who rewrote the history of the American cultural scene. For forty years, he has dealt with social issues, sexuality, racial intolerance, and dark aspects of American history in his work, and is admired and hated in equal measure. The U.S. Senate debate over his most infamous photograph , Piss Christ , and other controversial works raised questions about freedom of expression, artistic autonomy and the limits the government should set on funding art projects. This divide was labeled the "culture war" and continued throughout the 1990s in the United States.

Serrano explores a number of really hot topics: in the Infamous cycle, he documents objects and products that have overt or hidden racist undertones, from swastikas and depictions of lynching to caricatures of African Americans on consumer goods packaging. He portrays followers of the Ku Klux Klan (Klan) , homeless people from the New York subway (Nomads) , whose faces deliberately resemble Renaissance portraits and details of firearms (Objects of Desire) . Another dimension of his work is the emphasis on the aesthetic side at a time when beauty in art is often perceived as something undesirable.

A unique book with more than 140 photographs, following the exhibition of the same name , brings a view of his work not in closed chronological cycles, but in a dialogue of current photographs with older works. It also features an artist essay written specifically for the occasion and a scholarly study and commentary by exhibition curator Otto M. Urban.