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25 Most Shocking & Outrageous Artworks of All Time

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Artists like to confront us with artworks that make us think. Some artists even go out of their way to be offensive and create a scandal that will make them famous. In some cases they may go too far. Then people will ask, is it even art? You won’t believe some of the shocking and outrageous things artists have done in the name of art.

25.  Bed – Tracey Emin

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Source: independent.co.uk

In 1999 British artist Tracey Emin exhibited her unmade bed at the Tate Gallery in London. The bed was stained with bodily fluids and surrounded by condoms, dirty underwear and trash. The work was shortlisted for the Turner Prize and caused outrage in the British media, who argued that anyone could exhibit an unmade bed. Emin’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Childish, claimed that he had an old bed of Emin’s that he would sell for £20,000.

24.  Virgin Mary – Chris Ofili

Source: saatchigallery.com

Chris Ofili’s Virgin Mary was made using oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, elephant dung, map pins and pornographic images. It caused outrage when it was exhibited in the Sensation exhibition in New York in 2000. Then New York Mayor Rudi Guilini called the painting "sick” and brought a court case against the Brooklyn Museum, and attempted to withdraw the gallery’s $7M grant.

23. Piss Christ – Andre Serrano

Source: winwes.com

Probably one of the most famous artworks on this list, Piss Christ is a small plastic crucifix submerged in a jar of the artist’s urine. Serrano received death threats and lost government grants because of the work, and it was attacked with a hammer when it was exhibited in Australia in 1997. The work was vandalized "beyond repair” by Christian protesters during an exhibition in France in 2011.

22.  Loose Lips Sink Ships – Peter Langenbach

Source: landonlives.wordpress.com

Peter Langenbach’s sculpture shows Bill Clinton in a bathtub smoking a cigar, with Monica Lewinsky at the other end trying to keep her head above water. The artwork won first prize at the California State Fair in Sacramento, but sparked a debate about free speech and was eventually declared unfit for exhibition. Another gallery owner came to Langenbach’s rescue and agreed to exhibit the work after the scandal.

21.  Yo Mama’s Last Supper – Renée Cox

Source: muse.jhu.edu

Made in 1999, Yo Mama’s Last Supper is a photograph that looks like Leonardo DaVinci’s painting of The Last Supper. It shows 11 black men, a white man as Judas, and the naked artist as Jesus. When it was shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2001 it offended then New York City Mayor Rudi Guiliani who called for the creation of a panel to oversee "decency standards” for all publicly funded museums.

20.  Piss – David Cerny

Source: gettingstamped.com

David Cerny is known for his crazy sculptures but this one takes the cake. Located in Prague, the sculpture shows two men peeing on a map of the Czech Republic. The streams of water write quotes by famous Prague residents. You can also send a text message to a number listed on the sculpture, and watch as it writes your message.

19.  Shark – David Cerny

Source: cdn.patch.com

A parody of Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which featured a real shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde, Shark is a realistic life-size sculpture of Saddam Hussein. Created just a year before Hussein was executed, it shows the dictator bound with rope around his throat, wrists and feet. The sculpture was banned in Poland and in a town in Belgium because it might shock Muslims.

18.  Miss Kitty – Paolo Schmidlin

Source: Pinterest.com

Paolo Schmidlin’s controversial sculpture shows the Pope wearing thigh-high stockings, a pair of panties and a blonde wig. It caused outrage from many Catholic organizations including the Catholic Anti-Defamation League and was eventually removed from the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan, Italy due to the offense it caused. After the controversy, the sculpture was bought by Vittorio Sgarbi, Milan’s top culture official.

17.  Fountain – Marcel Duchamp

Source: sfmoma.org

Exhibited as a "ready made” art object in 1917, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain caused a scandal in the art world. When Duchamp exhibited the urinal on its side with the mysterious signature "R. Mutt” it made a radical statement about what could be art, and influenced generations of artists that followed. The original Fountain was lost, but Duchamp commissioned a number of replicas in the 60s that can still be seen in galleries around the world.

16.  Down by the Lake with Liz and Phil – Greg Taylor

Source: www.gregtaylor-sculptor.com

Down by the Lake with Liz and Phil was a public sculpture exhibited outside Australia’s High Court in Canberra. The sculpture showed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip sitting naked on a bench. Not long after it was installed, vandals attacked the sculpture with a sledge hammer. Following the vandalism, the sculpture was permanently removed.

15.  Myra – Marcus Harvey

Source: flickr.com

Marcus Harvey’s Myra caused outrage when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London in 1997. Harvey’s painting is a reproduction of a well-known police photograph of Myra Hindley, who notoriously murdered several children in the 60s with Ian Brady. Disturbingly, the portrait is made up of hundreds of casts of infants’ hands. The piece was vandalized several times, once with paint and a second time with eggs before it was placed behind a plexiglass screen. Even Hindley herself called for the painting to be taken down because the work was "a sole disregard not only for the emotional pain and trauma that would inevitably be experienced by the families of the Moors victims but also the families of any child victim.”

14.  Porno Queen – Paolo Schmidlin

Source: viaggi.excite.it

Paolo Schmidlin’s notorious sculpture depicts the Queen of England naked and in a suggestive position. Bizarrely, the sculpture was unveiled by the King Juan Carlos of Spain.

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13.  Sade for Fonts Sake – Paul Chan

Source: rhizome.org

Paul Chan’s 2011 work is a collection of fonts that you install on your computer. When you select the font, it will change what you write into a sexual phrase from historical literature, figures in sexual poses or characters inspired by porn stars and Monica Lewinsky.

12.  Untitled – Andrea Fraser

Source: betontv.hu

In 2002 Andrea Fraser arranged a commission with Friedrich Petzel Gallery. This wasn’t your usual commission, however. The gallery helped the artist find a collector who would agree to collaborate with her on a very controversial artwork. As part of the work, the collector agreed to pay $20,000 for a video of himself having sex with Fraser. The video was then made into an edition of five, with the first one going to the collector. Defending the work against accusations of prostitution, Fraser remarked, "This is not Indecent Proposal.”

11.  Tree – Paul McCarthy

Source: latimes.com

Paul McCarthy’s Tree was a 79 foot inflatable green sculpture erected in Paris in 2014. Although the press release described the work as a Christmas tree, many locals noticed that it looked like a giant butt plug. When confronted, McCarthy admitted that the he had deliberately designed it that way. The controversy that followed McCarthy’s admission led to him being assaulted and the work vandalized.

10.  Victimless Leather – Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr

Source: thefutureofthings.com

In this artwork, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr attempted to "grow” a leather jacket from cell cultures. Exhibited in "Design and the Elastic Mind” at MoMa in New York, the garment was shown while it was still "living.” The idea behind the artwork was to confront people with the morals of wearing dead animals as clothing. However, during the exhibition, the leather grew more quickly than expected and clogged the bioreactor. This forced the curator to unplug the reactor, in a way killing the artwork.

9.  Shoot – Chris Burden

Source: openculture.com

In this performance work from 1971, Chris Burden was shot in the arm by a close friend in a Santa Ana Gallery. The performance was filmed and you can still find it online. In this risky piece, Burden could easily have been killed if the shot was a few inches off. Burden’s original intention was to be grazed by the bullet, instead it penetrated his arm. He survived, and went on to make other shocking artworks, including one where he was nailed to a crucifix on top of a VW Beetle.

8.  Mother and Child – Damien Hirst

Source: baltimoresun.com

Possibly Damien Hirst’s most famous artwork, Mother and Child is made from a real cow and its calf, sawn in half and placed in two tanks of formaldehyde. The way the tanks are placed allows you to walk through the animals’ bodies, and clearly view their insides.

7.  Hell – Chapman Brothers

Source: theguardian.com

At first glance, the Chapman Brother’s Hell looks like an innocent scale model of the WWII soldiers. But take a closer look and you’ll see it depicts a gruesome hell of torture, rape and mutilation where Nazi soldiers are subjected to horrific acts on a tiny scale. The work was destroyed in the Momart warehouse fire, and apparently one journalist called the brothers to confirm whether "Hell was on fire.”

6.  Seedbed – Vito Acconci

Source: nationalacademy.org

In this performance from 1972, Vito Acconci installed a ramp across the width of the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. The artist lay underneath the ramp, out of view of visitors. As visitors entered the gallery, he would speak his fantasies about them through a loudspeaker while masturbating.

5.  The 3rd I – Wafa Bilal

Source: oneart.or

In 2010, Wafa Bilal had a titanium plate installed in the back of his head, to which a camera was attached. For one year, an image was captured every minute by the camera and streamed live to Bilal’s website. Bilal has said that the project was a statement about surveillance. The website also showed Bilal’s location via GPS. In 2011, Bilal had the camera removed due to constant pain.

4.  Shrapnel – Adrian Parsons

Source: huffingtonpost.com

In 2007, performance artist Adrian Parsons removed his own foreskin with an old Swiss Army Knife in front of an audience at the Warehouse Gallery in Washington. After he successfully removed his foreskin, he stuffed it into a hole in the wall in the Gallery. Parsons recovered from the ordeal, but he did visit the hospital afterwards to get checked out. If you’re game, you can still find the video online. Ouch!

3.  Orgien Mysterien Theater – Hermann Nitsch

Source: radiopanik.org

Between 1962 and 1998 Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch staged over 100 "Orgien Mysterien Theater” performances. The performances would take place over 6 days and involved slaughtered animals, religious sacrifices, and crucifixions. Nitsch used animal entrails, milk, blood and carcasses with naked performers to create bizarre rituals. Dancing and music would also take place during the performance. Due to the taboo scenes and nudity in the artwork, Nitsch was charged and went to prison three times.

2.  I Miss You – Franco B.

Source: artfacts.net

In this bizarre performance, Italian artist Franco B. walked down a catwalk at the Tate Gallery in London. His body was painted white from head to toe, and he had cut his wrists, leaving a trail of blood on the floor.

1.  Eating People – Zhu Yu

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Source: theculturetrip.com

Chinese artist Zhu Yu shocked the art world and the Chinese government with this piece, where he announced his intention "to eat people as a protest against mankind’s moral idea that he/she cannot eat people.” The performance was documented in photographs of Zhu cooking and eating a human fetus which he divided into five parts. China’s Ministry of Culture cited the piece as a menace to social order and the spiritual health of the Chinese people. Zhu claimed that he stole the fetus from a medical school, but don’t worry…many people believe the artwork is a fake created with doll parts and duck meat. Zhu has never confirmed whether the fetus was real or not.

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