Michigan Artist Sentenced To Jail Over
       Sistine Chapel Mural Nudity On His Property

Artist Edward Stross was sentenced to prison last week for his mural depicting a bare-breasted figure on a building in Roseville, Michigan, in suburban Detroit.

The artist was ordered by District Judge Marco Santia to serve 30 days in jail, do two years of probation and pay a fine of $500 for his variation of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Man,” illustrating a half-naked Eve. Stross was also mandated to alter the fresco, which he painted on the outside of his art gallery in 1997.

After covering the breast with a black cloth, Stross explained to reporters that he was in mourning for artists everywhere. “Removing the work is the ultimate punishment. The jail time is nothing compared to removing what I painted. ... They’re trying to paint me out as a criminal.”

Stross volunteered at a local homeless shelter and has created a number of murals in the community for free. He added, “I think it’s disgusting, to be honest with you.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan filed an emergency motion to keep him out of jail pending an appeal of the sentence. The ACLU obtained a stay until March 5. City officials are apparently quite determined to see Stross jailed.

In a press release, national ACLU Legal Director Michael J. Steinberg commented, “It is disturbing that an artist can be imprisoned for replicating a masterpiece from the Sistine Chapel on the side of his art studio.” Stross, 43, told the Detroit Free Press: “This is one of the world’s most famous paintings. This is not my work. It is Michelangelo’s, and all I am trying to do is brighten up our community. ... They’re trying to turn my message into something it’s not.”

Not only has the stress been terrible, but Mr. Stross has multiple sclerosis and jail is certainly not the right place for someone with a disability. Stross collapsed in his studio and was taken by ambulance to St. John Hospital. His brother told the media,

“The stress over this fight got to be just too much.” A number of Michigan artists have spoken out against Stross’ victimization. “If it’s good enough for the Sistine Chapel, it’s good enough for Roseville,” said Lauren Cerand, spokesperson for Emerging Arts.

Jef Bourgeau, who faced obscenity charges in Pontiac, Michigan, in 2000 for displaying classical art such as Gustave Courbet’s “The Origin of the World,” told the WSWS: “It’s an absurd case. I had the same experience in Pontiac. Stross’ is a folk version of Michelangelo. There is more nudity in your average church.

Sex has become one of the main focuses since the Christian right has gained influence. There has been an increasing preoccupation by the right wing with what is quite normal in art. “To show you how the pendulum has swung, in 1989, Christina Orr-Cahill, art director of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, was fired for canceling the Robert Mapplethorpe [a controversial photographer] show. Today such a person would be promoted as a hero, like [former New York mayor Rudolph] Giuliani for censoring the ‘Sensation’ exhibition. Art is becoming a target because it is the one thing that can speak out against what is happening.

Here is an artist that painted a picture on his own private property. Where is the first amendment freedom of speech? We can send kids to Iraq. American soldiers can torture people all over the globe. And in Detroit, they are getting rid of art programs and closing down the schools.

Something is definitely wrong with this picture.” In near-identical circumstances, the ACLU filed suit in January against the city of Pilot Point, Texas north of Dallas and its police department for coercing an art gallery owner, Dwight Miller, into removing a version of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” on the exterior wall of his gallery. Miller was also forced to cover the mural after police threatened to arrest him under a pornography statute.

“It is unconstitutional for government officials to censor a work of art because it might offend a small group of people,” said ACLU of Texas Director Will Harrell. “It is also a misuse of resources to have our law enforcement officials act as art critics.” The Pilot Point police repeatedly threatened to prosecute Miller under a criminal statute that targets those who abuse children by selling or displaying hard-core pornography. In response, Miller covered Eve’s breasts with a banner that read “Crime Scene.” “The threats against Mr. Miller by law enforcement were baseless and wholly inappropriate. The Farmers and Merchant’s Gallery mural is no more pornographic than the Sistine Chapel or countless other works of art portraying classical nude figures,” argued the ACLU director.

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