What does the phrase ‘artistic censorship’ bring to mind? It’s unlikely to be the freedom of speech that the US so prides itself upon. Yet the resurgence of censorship in visual arts today is backed by a lengthy history of curtailed art in America.
The ’40s and ’50s were characterised by a strong anti-communist sentiment in America, fuelled by the right, in which countless creative careers were destroyed by the Hollywood blacklists. Anyone and everyone deemed to be part of the “communist conspiracy” was stricken from the Hollywood desirables, and radical artists such as Picasso and Dali were targeted by the Republicans.
Fast forward to the ’80s and Republican politicians had moved onto criticism of the gay community in light of the AIDS crisis, using this momentum to launch an attack on obscene art—some of which was made by those affected. This criticism culminated in the first incident of serious censorship for the arts in the US. The National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) that had enjoyed creative freedom until this point suddenly found itself under the rule of the government, meaning they were not to fund anything considered obscene “including but not limited to depictions of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts which do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
Recent political events have led to an unforeseen level of censorship around subjects such as the Israel-Palestine conflict and reproduction/abortion. Scarier still is Trumps involvement with the arts. Since becoming president, he has named himself chair of the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington DC and increased federal control of the NEA to blanket ban the discussion of diversity and “gender ideology” in art. Although not the first indicator, this is a too-strong sign of the authoritarian rule that Trump intends to impose. His targeting of cultural institutions has historical ties to every major autocracy in recent history: reminiscent of Viktor Orban’s manipulation of cultural trends in Hungary, Jair Bolsonaro’s defunding of Brazil’s artistic community and even Adolf Hitler’s weaponisation of art in the Great German Art Exhibition of 1937. Fortunately, it is widely recognised as such. Trump’s impositions on the NEA federal grants have caused collective uproar amongst artists in America. This appears to have been too far of an infringement into our right to freedom of expression and this sentiment is marked by the tangible protests of 2025, in which hundreds of artists signed a letter demanding the ban on diversity and gender ideology-orientated projects be revoked. Although not immediately effective, on the September 19 2025, the court determined that “viewpoint-based restrictions have no place in federal arts funding,” a breakthrough ruling that signifies a strong backbone to the liberated left of the culture war. This, coupled with the recent flip of the Senate to the democratic blue, is cause to celebrate a visible future for the arts in America.
Photo by Diogo Lemos on Unsplash
