Mapplethorpe Issue Being Studied by FCC : Photographs: Agency reviewing complaint against Boston’s WGBH, which broadcast seven controversial pictures.

A collection of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs--already a lightning rod for controversy in four cities--has acquired a new dimension with disclosure that the Federal Communications Commission is reviewing a complaint against a Boston public-television station for airing several sexually explicit Mapplethorpe images.

The FCC said that it initiated an inquiry Tuesday into the broadcast of the Mapplethorpe images by WGBH-TV in Boston as a result of a complaint by the American Family Assn., a Tupelo, Miss., Christian organization led by the Rev. Donald E. Wildmon.

The complaint accuses the broadcast of being both obscene and indecent. Existing U.S. Supreme Court precedents have consistently held that obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment. Indecent material, although Constitutionally protected, can be curtailed to prevent minors from exposure, the court has ruled.

Eric Brass, WGBH’s corporate counsel, denied Wildmon’s allegations, saying that the broadcast was “not legally obscene, nor would I think there’s any reason to believe it would be harmful.”

The Wildmon organization touched off an ongoing controversy over the National Endowment for the Arts in April of last year when it complained about federal support for an exhibit that included an image of a crucifix immersed in urine by New York photographer Andres Serrano.

The FCC said that Wildmon’s complaint, dated Aug. 7, was received at commission offices on Monday. The agency said it began processing the case Tuesday morning.

The pictures broadcast by WGBH on its 10 p.m. newscast July 31 are part of “The Perfect Moment,” a Mapplethorpe show that had already roused controversy in Washington, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and in Boston when fundamentalists and other political conservatives attempted to have law enforcement officials prosecute the gallery showing it on smut charges.