Existing comment:
Jesse Helms
1991
Bronze, Edition 9/12
Jesse Helms (1921-2008), a Republican Senator from North Carolina for thirty years, was an outspoken social conservative who fought against disability rights, gay rights, women's rights, and affirmative action. In 1989, he famously voted against funding for the National Endowment for the Arts in protest over the agency's support of religiously profane works like the Piss Christ by Andres Serrano (1950-).
Oliphant later explained his 1991 sculpture of Helms, writing:
In the wake of the senator's pronouncement vis-a-vis the National Endowment for the Arts and, indeed, art in general, the natural temptation was to sculpt this Great Visigoth in a classic pose. I succumbed to the temptation with some delight.
The "classic pose" Oliphant gives Helms quotes the Venus de Milo which, like Helms, is missing arms and legs but, unlike the paunchy, naked Helms, is ideally proportioned and physically beautiful. |