Rupert bare: how the Oz obscenity trial inspired a generation of protest art

When a lewd cartoon of Rupert Bear landed the editors of the 60s counterculture paper in court, David Hockney, John Lennon, Robert Crumb and more made some of their most urgent art in response

“What do you suppose is the effect intended to be of equipping Rupert Bear with such a large sized organ?”

Fifty years ago, this was the question put to expert witness Edward de Bono, under pain of perjury. The six-week trial of Oz magazine at the Old Bailey was the longest obscenity trial in England’s history. It remains the most absurd.