N.E.A.

Mr. Wildmon had sent a photograph in 1989 to every member of Congress of a work by the artist Andres Serrano of a small crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine, which had appeared in an exhibition with partial N.E.A. funding.

The Serrano work, along with an exhibition that included sexually provocative photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe that the N.E.A. also helped underwrite, led Republicans in Congress to pass legislation requiring the N.E.A. to uphold “general standards of decency” when funding art.

In 1990, the chairman of the N.E.A.,

Bush two years later when N.E.A. funding became an issue in Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign.

During an eight-year legal battle, Finley and her fellow artists were awarded the value of their vetoed grants but lost their broader challenge to N.E.A. policy.