Work by artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso, Ai Weiwei and the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe will be brought together under one roof this week in what curators say is the world’s only museum devoted to art that has been censored. in Barcelona consists of about 200 works that have all been denounced, attacked or removed from exhibition.
“There are works that perhaps don’t have great artistic merit but their story merits them a place in the museum. That’s what these works have in common and it shows that censorship has failed, because here you can see them. It’s a triumph of freedom of expression.” At first glance, Con Flores a María by the Spanish artist Charo Corrales conforms to the iconography of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels – except that she has one hand between her legs and it’s clear her ecstasy is more corporeal than divine.