Art, Libraries, and the Censor

Abstract

As the holdings of libraries in the United States increasingly begin to include art collections, librarians, as the curators and exhibitors of these art collections, are likely to face problems of censorship as they have long faced such problems in regard to printed materials. But because the visual arts are so public and graphic, they are even more vulnerable to censorship attacks than books. Furthermore, the United States lacks adequate copyright or other legal protection for the work of the graphic artist after its sale or exhibition: in particular, the United States has no moral right doctrine such as exists in thirty-seven other nations to protect art from mutilation or obliteration. This article examines the ambiguities of copyright legislation in regard to art, the origins and intractability of the attitude toward the graphic arts of the American public, and the ways in which librarians, individually and through their professional organizations, can attempt to meet the problem of art censorship.