-- Posted by jonbehere at 8:53 am on Oct. 19, 2008 I'm doing a presentation, and I need some early examples of controversy in art please. I've got enough for recent times (such as Damien Hirst's work etc) but i'd like to talk about anything that may have happened hundreds of years ago. Something anti-religion must have been painted right? Cheers. -- Posted by helpful person at 9:02 am on Oct. 19, 2008 religion pretty much had total control over the worlds population at hundrds of years ago and anyone with atheist ideas wud have been unlikely to be able to get hold of materiels and funding that were needed -- Posted by girlbythewhirlpool at 10:23 am on Oct. 19, 2008 impressionism? manet etc.  instead of realism. erm didn't picasso do something controversial? that's all i got, really small things were controversial back then. -- Posted by saradotcom at 4:54 pm on Oct. 19, 2008 The Dada movement caused a HUGE controversy, because it was so anti-art and opposite of everything that art had been doing.