House and Senate negotiators agreed Friday to bar the use of federal funds for "obscene" art in a dispute over a controversial exhibit that included several sexually suggestive photographs.
However, the agreement - which followed a turnabout by the Senate and a decision to order its negotiators to hold firm - did not resolve the question of whether two arts groups that gave federal money for disputed art works should be suspended from receiving grants for five years.House negotiators held firm that there be no five-year suspension, even after the Senate team backed off on an outright ban. The two chambers will settle that issue later.
The "obscene" art dispute has prompted a spirited nationwide debate over the issues of censorship, artistic freedom and integrity.
Although late Thursday night the Senate soundly rebuffed Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., on a 62-35 vote when he demanded that no money go to support "obscene or indecent" art, the Senate reversed field Friday morning when a revised proposal was offered by Sen. Wyche Fowler, D-Ga. It passed 65-31 and covered only "obscene" works, not "indecent" art.
The House negotiators accepted that proposal, which covered works deemed "obscene" - "including sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the exploitation of children or individuals engaged in sex acts."
Senators agreed to the House addition that the works could not get federal support if they also were "utterly devoid of significant literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
The action applies only to grants made by two government agencies - the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. NEA and NEH officials were directed to decide which art works, if any, were "obscene" and, therefore, could not be funded by the respective agencies.
The compromise also provides $250,000 for a commission to study the way the two organizations make grants and report on ways the process might be improved.
The compromise also would urge the commission to follow Supreme Court rulings in suggesting new standards for what is "obscene" and declare that the NEA violated its own standards of artistic excellence by partially funding a controversial photography exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe and another criticized art work by Andres Serrano in a separate exhibit.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, noting the volatility of the issue and the regularity with which Helms keeps raising it, told the conferees: "It will not die on the floor of the Senate unless we deal with it."
The "obscene" art issue was contained in a money bill involving the Interior Department and other agencies.
A recent Mapplethorpe exhibit in Washington that angered Helms featured some photographs of nude children and a few featuring sexually suggestive poses with homosexual or sadomasochistic themes. It also included portraits, still lifes and photographs of flowers. One of Serrano's art works featured a crucifix in a vial of urine.