Abstract

This article is about artistic freedom of speech and censorship. It compares sadistic and misogynistic elements of (uncensored) Surrealism (from Hans Bellmer's dolls and pornographic photographs, to Giacometti's 'Woman with Her Throat Cut' and the writing of Georges Bataille) to recent censorship of Drill music and self-censorship in comedy. It analyses the cases for and against repressing taboo themes by comparing the Surrealist call for 'pure psychic automatism' with conservative calls for artistic censorship on the grounds of moral decency or blasphemy and liberal calls to censor politically incorrect themes - questioning the unconscious motives of both. It subjects Surrealist art to Peter Tatchell's criteria for censorship, concluding that morality is not fixed and that, unless it falls fowl of Tatchell's three exceptions, art should not be censored.