joel peter witkin

I realized this artist's work come to mind when thinking about our class. His work is so controversial and seemingly illegal in some respects that he often works outside the U.S. I never cease to jump when I view his work. Here is an excerpt from his bio on wikipedia, "His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses (or pieces of them) and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and physically deformed people. His complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or famous classical paintings. Because of the transgressive nature of the contents of his pictures, his works have been labeled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. His art was often marginalized because of this challenging aspect." Look him up if you'd like to see more. I posted the most "tame" because I did not want to force the more graphic images on people.