What are peoples views on censorship in the arts?
It depends on whether you’re referring to government censorship or arts industry censorship. We tend to equate censorship with “banning.” Yet government funding of the arts and even private galleries constantly make decisions about what gets space and what doesn’t — a form of “soft censorship.” There’s a great deal of lemming mentality in the arts. If you took a painting or sculpture done by a kindergartner and put the name “Picasso” on it, then placed it with good lighting in a top gallery — people would marvel at its brilliance, or risk being snubbed as uncultured. So who gets to choose what is beautiful, what is good? In recent decades, it’s been more important to be strange — then scoff at people who don’t understand.
