Any information on Andris Serrano?

There are many rebellious artists, and American photographer Andres Serrano is one of the famous ones. He immersed the Crucifixion in his own urine and photographed it, causing an uproar when it was exhibited in 1989. New York Senator Alvers D'Amato angrily tore up a copy of "Pissing Christ" during a congressional session, slamming Serrano as "not an artist, but a weirdo birdman who is insulting the American people." ".

Serrano felt wronged. "My original intention was to beautify Christ." He defended. "It is a pious and serene photo, which is definitely different from the image we see in the church. I think I did a very noble job with this image. processing." Yet ordinary people did not consider urine an appropriate material for expressions of reverence, and they condemned the National Endowment for the Arts for funding "obscene" images. Serrano was forced to return $15,000 in art funds.

Serrano was born in New York in 1950 to a devout Catholic family. His father is Honduran and his mother is Afro-Cuban. He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and entered the Brooklyn Art Museum School at the age of 17, where he studied art for two years. Unfortunately, he became addicted to drugs and did not quit until he was 28 years old and started taking photos. Some people believe that his minority status and experience at the bottom of society have resulted in his strong rebellious character against mainstream culture.

In addition to religious sculptures, Serrano also allowed classics in art history such as "Venus" and "The Thinker" to be "baptized" with his bodily fluids. His fascination with extreme materials such as semen, urine, and blood, and his insult to the sanctity of religion and art—even though he himself did not think so—made him infamous and made him quickly popular. He then turned his camera on some special groups. In 1990, he photographed masked Ku Klux Klan members and homeless people in the New York subway; in 1991, he completed the "Church" series. He said: "The "Church" series is in the same vein as "The Ku Klux Klan" because the characters on the screen are all wearing robes and hoods." He believes that people in such attire are pretentious and pretend to be powerful.

After several years of building relationships, Serrano finally obtained permission to enter and leave the morgue freely, and directly photographed corpses that died of drowning, fire, disease and murder. This is what Chen completed in 1992. Corpse Series". Most of the photos show parts of dead bodies. Some were covered with bruises and died with their eyes open, which was frightening; some were sleeping peacefully, as if they had finally been liberated, shrouded in a strange tranquility. Death is like the sun. Forced to stare at the dead, we feel helpless and helpless.

His next stunning series is The History of Sex. After the impact of countless artists, the scale of sex in art has been very wide. Serrano's unique trick is to take unconventional sex photos. The most shocking thing is that the bodies of old men and women with chicken skin and black hair become the protagonists of sex. He said: "One of the issues I'm trying to explore is people's sexual identity, and you don't usually use sexual terms to measure these people, such as the elderly and the disabled. You know, they are the outcasts of society. Individuals on the side. The idea of ??older people having sex is scary to many people. “It’s true that we are used to seeing beautiful human bodies, but not real human bodies, such as two aging bodies being intimate with each other. body.

Although the subjects and materials used are controversial and even disgusting, objectively speaking, the visual effects of Serrano's works are still quite beautiful. Art critic Lucy Lippard, writing in Art in America in defense of Serrano's "Pissing Christ," said the work "has a melancholy beauty" and "produces the feeling of a monument." The homeless people and naked old men under his lens all exude a calm and confident light. “The people I photograph are always beautiful,” Serrano said. This trouble-making artist looks cold on the outside, but is quite soft and warm on the inside.