Can Art be Offensive? To Whom? A View of Artistic Obligations

Abstract

All over the world, there are artists of varied fields. These artists express their skills, thoughts, philosophies, and beliefs through their artistic works. Humans are not a homogenous group who share common and basic beliefs and philosophy of life. Consequently, any work of art is mostly not going to be liked by all. To address the need the question; can art be offensive and to whom? requires us to first examine the works of art and the persons who appreciate them as a means of examining how artworks could be considered offensive to people. This article uses textual and content analysis as a means of examining some of the legal and cultural implications of art products and how injurious they can be to societies and individuals. From examples drawn from the analysis, it is surmised that artists should know they do not operate in an abstract world but a world of culture, religion, and preferences. It is thus recommendable that artists take due cognizance of the communities in which they operate and act accordingly to avoid damaging criticism, threats of death, and lawsuits.