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| Walt Whitman by Thomas Eakins, 1887 |
See the Exhibit at the Hide/ Seek Website
The exhibit is "the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture." This is a really important show for our time with issues such as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy under national review and the recent rash of suicides related to sexual identity and persecution.
You can see the video in question on YouTube
In the Latest College Arts Association News:
"CAA Statement
The College Art Association regrets the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly (1987) from the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, on display at the National Portrait Gallery. It was taken out on November 30 by G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in response to outside pressure. CAA further expresses profound disappointment that the House speaker–designate, John A. Boehner of Ohio, and the incoming majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, have used their positions to question future funding for the Smithsonian Institution.
CAA applauds the National Portrait Gallery for its groundbreaking exhibition, which presents the long-suppressed subject of same-sex orientation. Furthermore, CAA commends the thorough, pioneering scholarship and the challenging curatorial judgment made by the organizers of Hide/Seek—David C. Ward, a historian at the museum, and Jonathan Katz, director of the Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. That the work of everyone involved has been heedlessly compromised is deeply troubling. The pressure brought to bear on the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian sounds a familiar note from 1989, when direct federal funding to artists was ended due to political pressure. Then as now, CAA strongly protests such tactics.
Government has a long tradition of supporting universities, museums, and libraries—institutions that have produced research that expresses a variety of positions on all subjects. Freedom of expression is one of the great strengths of American democracy and one that our country holds up as a model for emerging democracies elsewhere. Americans understand that ideas expressed in books and artworks are those of their makers, not of the institutions that house them, and certainly do not represent public policy.
CAA urges all members to let your senators and representatives know of your support for the exhibition, its curators, and the National Portrait Gallery. You may also use advocacy tools provided by the National Humanities Alliance or Americans for the Arts."
Anyone else disgusted with our elected officials?
In a Follow up to a fast moving story: This protestor staged a silent protest by playing the controversial video on his iPad hung around his neck while standing peacefully next to the gallery entrance.
View the Article at ArtInfo: Banned for Life
The protestor was arrested - and this too is online: The Protest
In a Follow up to a fast moving story: This protestor staged a silent protest by playing the controversial video on his iPad hung around his neck while standing peacefully next to the gallery entrance.
View the Article at ArtInfo: Banned for Life
The protestor was arrested - and this too is online: The Protest
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| Protester Mike Blasenstein with an iPad screening David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire In My Belly" in the National Portrait Gallery The NY Times has continued with some great reporting on the issue this week: and Frank Rich (no relation) has a great Op-Ed Piece today: |
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| A protest against removing a David Wojnarowicz video from a National Portrait Gallery show. |
thank you for posting this important article Michael.
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