play of the unmentionable : an installation by Joseph Kosuth at the Brooklyn Museum

At the height of the controversy over government funding for “obscene” works of art, internationally renowned conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth created “The Brooklyn Museum Collection: The Play of the Unmentionable,” an exhibit about censorship at The Brooklyn Museum. His installation, one of the best-attended, most widely reviewed (and most controversial) of the year, juxtaposed works of art from throughout history that had been deemed politically, religiously, or sexually objectionable, with statements about the role of art in society by writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Using artworks drawn from the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, “The Play of the Unmentionable” showed graphically how public and institutional ideas of obscenity and artistic value have changed throughout history—and continue to change today.