Jim Dyson/Getty Images Europe/Getty Imagesīut the possible limits of art’s political impact hasn’t deterred artists, it has spurred them on. "Strong and Stable My Arse" (2017) by Jeremy Deller. As the referendum result and May’s subsequent re-election demonstrated, art as a political intervention isn’t always such a big hammer. Jeremy Deller’s rather less polite poster criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May’s declaration of “strong and stable” government (“Strong and Stable My Arse”) appeared on London streets last year. In the UK’s bitterly fought EU referendum campaign, the art community rallied around photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’ pro-EU posters. The idea of art as a political weapon and a form of protest has become mainstream, and artists have taken on the role of political activist. Artists have continued to shock and shake up mainstream opinion ever since. Those “culture wars,” started in earnest with the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, produced important controversies – such as that over Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” or the scandal that attended the work of queer photographer Robert Mapplethorpe – over whether art has the right to offend conservative and religious sensibilities.
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