An Archive

Documented throughout the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) archives I found myself rustling through film negatives of Ed Kienholz’s Back Seat Dodge ’38 installation. After additional research I later discovered that the negatives I was examining were of a press conference in response to the pornographic qualities of Kienholz’s installation (1964).

Becoming a topic of discussion on censorship in art the sculpture abstractly portrays a couple engaged in sexual activity in the back seat of the Dodge. Although they’re constructed from what looks like chicken wire you can see the contours of the figure clearly. Discovering additional documents I found that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors attempted to ban the sculpture as pornographic and threatened to withhold financing from the Museum, “Kienholz’s installation gained notoriety in 1966 when it became the focus of a public dispute involving censorship and funding of the arts.”

My interest that history proves art has been censored throughout the years motivated me to ask colleagues additional information about the installations past. I discovered that the uproar of ‘sexual taboos’ in Back Seat Dodge ’38 pushed individuals to remove their memberships from the museum and ironically help nurture a defining piece in the LACMA’s collection. The most interesting historical aspect is the initial response and today’s perspective, “The tableau would become Kienholz’s signature style, with striking juxtapositions and startling imagery that often referenced earlier historical periods while drawing upon current social issues.” Although I couldn’t agree more with this statement about Keinholz’s overall practice, it still leaves a somewhat ambiguous response to contemporary art censorship today.