A controversial reaction is often the initial response to much of our history’s art that later becomes iconic, Michael Kammen said at the Leadership through the Arts Forum at Butler University’s Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall Thursday night.

Kammen, who was this school year’s fifth speaker invited to the forum, is the Newton C. Farr professor of American History and Culture at Cornell University where he has taught since 1965. The Pulitzer Prize winning author spoke to the audience about art controversies, and discussed possible reasons for the acceleration of such controversies throughout history.

His most recent book, “Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture,” explores many of the controversies he briefly discussed.

Kammen said the first major art controversy took place in 1832 when a large statue commemorating George Washington was completed and set to be put out on public display.

He said the strong dislike among critics and the public stemmed from the uncomplimentary features. While the head looked strikingly like Washington in his 60s, the body resembled an Olympic athlete.

“The juxtaposition of the body of a 30-year-old stud and a 60-year-old head was very disturbing,” he said.

Despite the controversy and general dislike of the finished product, Kammen said the statue is now considered a great American icon and remains today in the foyer of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

“With many of these objects of controversy, people eventually get over their initial shock,” Kammen said.

Kammen briefly touched upon other art controversies that he highlighted in his book, and said the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial took years to achieve the acclaim that we now associate with them.

Kammen said it wasn’t until 1939 that the Lincoln Memorial became associated with civil rights protests when Marian Anderson sang on its steps after being refused performance in Constitution Hall.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial caused an outrage when the winner of the competition to determine who would erect it was revealed to be an undergraduate at Yale University. Kammen said the public initially considered it a dishonor, but it has since become a standard to which subsequent memorials are compared, such as the Korean War Veterans Memorial, established in 1995.

“Public art and public sculpture has been the single greatest agitation and aggravation,” Kammen said. “It took Americans longer to accept abstraction in sculpture than in painting.”

He referred to the famous Picasso sculpture located in Chicago, titled simply “The Picasso.” The sculpture caused a controversy after its 1967 unveiling but has since become a landmark of downtown Chicago. One audience member remarked that it created a unique energy in the city.

Similarly, “La Grande Vitesse” is an enormous red sculpture located in front of City Hall in Grand Rapids, Mich. The public was outraged that this sculpture would be representative of their city, but when it increased the previously nonexistent tourist industry, the sculpture became the official logo of Grand Rapids within one year.

Kammen said, “Not only did it appear on the stationery of the mayor, but on the sides of garbage trucks.”

IUPUI senior Kara Leto said Kammen was one of her favorite forum speakers of the year.

“It was definitely one of the more amusing speeches,” Leto said, who thought Kammen’s reasoning for art controversy was interesting.

He attributes many of the controversies to the post-World War II era, when a large amount of art schools opened in the United States and increased the number of artists.

“Artists needed a way to call attention to their work,” he said. “One of the best ways was by doing something outrageous or controversial.”

Though art has created an extensive amount of controversy over the past 50 years, much of that same work later becomes part of what defines a city or an event. Kammen said he agrees with 20th century artist Georges Braque, the well-known creator of cubism, who said “art is meant to disturb.”

“I think that’s been a widely shared attitude among not all, but a great many artists,” he said.