NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 72, Number 2

May 1997

The Bold and the Beautiful: Art, Public Spaces, and the First Amendment

Daniel Mach

Art has become a battleground on which American society fights its most intensely political and deeply personal wars. Because art by its very nature stimulates both intellectual and emotional responses, it is uniquely suited to generate powerful, often conflicting reactions in both artist and viewer. Increasingly, our most profound cultural tensions surface when people contest the meaning and value of artistic expression.