Author of The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the Birth of America’s Culture WarsAbout this Event
Get inspired. Be empowered. Become quotable.
Sarasota Art Museum presents an inspiring lineup of great writers with great stories to tell through its annual author series. Hear directly from authors, artists, and contemporary creatives who are sparking new ways of thinking about art, culture, and creative practices. For those who appreciate remarkable creativity, a pioneering spirit, or are in search of inspiration, we invite you to join us and become quotable.
Isacc Butler is the author of the NBCC Award winner The Method and the coauthor of The World Only Spins Forward. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, Slate, American Theatre, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and more. He created the podcast Lend Me Your Ears, co-hosted the podcast Working, and co-created the multimedia production Real Enemies. Butler teaches theater history and performance at NYU. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Following the talk, Butler will sign copies of his book The Perfect Moment, available for purchase in the Museum’s SHOP.
About the Book
The prize-winning author of The Method reveals the forgotten origins of America's culture wars - a story of late 20th century art vs. censorship, brimming with intense drama and fierce moral urgency.
It's 1988, the final year of the Reagan presidency, and the curtain is closing on the Cold War. In the absence of external adversaries, the American public is on the precipice of war with itself. The religious right, newly ascendant and emboldened, is determined to seize control of America's future. And the first battles will be fought over, of all things, contemporary art.
In The Perfect Moment, cultural historian Isaac Butler reexamines this pivotal, misunderstood American era. Archconservatives like Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson fixed their sights on artists including Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Karen Finley, capitalizing on the provocative politics of their work to stir a nascent evangelical coalition into moral panic. It was at this moment, Butler argues, that the far right perfected the tactics it still uses today to whip its base into frenzy-from banning books and sanitizing American history, to spreading medical misinformation. All too relevant today, The Perfect Moment is an incisive and meticulously researched account of this crucial period and a stirring ode to the power of the creative spirit.
Event venue
Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 South Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, United States
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