The Perfect Moment
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Robert Mapplethorpe's work was regularly displayed at publicly funded exhibitions. Conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association opposed supporting his kind of art, and he became something of a cause celebre for both sides in the National Endowment for the Arts funding debate. His The Perfect Moment exhibit in 1990 which included seven sadomasochistic portraits in Cincinnati resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director Dennis Barrie on charges of "pandering obscenity".
A widely publicized case of prosecuting alleged obscenity occurred in 1990, when the Cincinnati Arts Center agreed to hold The Perfect Moment exhibition featuring the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. His work included several artistic nude photographs of males and was deemed offensive by some people for this reason. This resulted in the prosecution of the center and its director, who were later acquitted.