Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (Ideologies of Desire)

“I know it when I see it…” These words, famously spoken in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, became the rallying cry of the anti-obscenity lobby as their enraged howls became the soundtrack to a tumultuous mixture of modern art, homosexuality, and public funding.

Author Richard Meyer charts the history of this American culture war through detailed analysis of the work of artists who fought on the front lines, often finding themselves personally vilified… and th…