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National Portrait Gallery Removes Important Gay Work

Dec 9, 2010
Events of Interest, The World

The National Portrait Gallery just removed an important video work, “Fire In My Belly,” by the artist David Wojnarowicz with audio by Diamanda Galas from it’s current exhibition about gay and lesbian identity in the US. Call for the end to this censorship and demand that the video be re-united with the exhibition.

The video may be difficult to watch, but it deals with important issues, unpleasant subjects, and the reality of AIDS for these great artists. Good art often pushes boundaries and makes people uncomfortable, and this video is a perfect example of this fact. Wojnarowicz was an amazing artist who made astounding work with an urgency and a purpose. He inspired an entire generation of gay artists. Diamanda Galas is also an important musician whose work has addressed issues such as gay rights, AIDS, and genocide. To censor these important artists is totally unacceptable.

The Catholic League and right-wing politicians called for his video to be removed, so you can see the ugly specter of the culture wars rearing its head again. The museum’s director, Martin Sullivan caved to their demands. The exhibition was not funded with public dollars and the removal of the video is censorship pure and simple. The National Portrait Gallery should retain its independence and ability to exhibit shows that represent the identities of all Americans, not just the dominant culture, or views only palatable to right-wing conservatives. Please join in expressing your desire to have the video put back in the show by calling your representatives, members of congress, and the director of the museum.

To find your representatives go to:

http://www.house.gov/

To find your senator go to:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

To call Martin Sullivan, Director of The National Portrait Gallery dial 202 633 8276.

To call Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian dial 202 633 1846

Original NY Times Article:  National Portrait Gallery Removes Video Criticized for Religious Imagery

6 Comments
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6 Comments

  1. admin  •  Dec 18, 2010 @12:33 pm

    Comment on National Portrait Gallery Removes Important Gay Work by ToFF Office
    Warhol Foundation Threatens to End Financing of Smithsonian Exhibitions
    By KATE TAYLOR

    The Andy Warhol Foundation is threatening to cease financing Smithsonian exhibitions if the institution does not restore a work of art that was removed from an exhibition after it prompted attacks by the head of the Catholic League and some Republican members of Congress. The Warhol Foundation gave $100,000 to the Smithsonian for the exhibition, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” at the National Portrait Gallery, where the work was removed.

    In a letter sent on Monday to the head of the Smithsonian, Secretary G. Wayne Clough, Joel Wachs, the president of the Warhol Foundation, said that the foundation’s board voted unanimously on Friday to demand that the Smithsonian restore the work, an excerpt of a video by the artist David Wojnarowicz, to the exhibition, or the foundation would reject any future grant requests.

  2. admin  •  Mar 16, 2011 @11:40 am

    “I imagine what it would be like if friends had a demonstration each time a lover or a friend or a stranger died of AIDS.”
    -David Wojnarowicz

    Joining the protest against censorship, CB1 Gallery will be screening the original 13-minute version of David Wojnarowicz’s video, “A Fire in My Belly,” at the gallery during this Thursday’s LA Downtown Art Walk, December 9. The video will be screened from noon – 9 p.m. at CB1 Gallery, 207 W 5th. St, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Screening will continue throughout the weekend.

    CB1 Gallery disagrees with the Smithsonian’s decision to withdraw the artist’s 1987 video piece “A Fire in My Belly” from the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition entitled “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.”

    In a 1989 interview Wojnarowicz spoke about the role of animals as symbolic imagery in his work, stating, “Animals allow us to view certain things that we wouldn’t allow ourselves to see in regard to human activity. In the Mexican photographs with the coins and the clock and the gun and the Christ figure and all that, I used the ants as a metaphor for society because the social structure of the ant world is parallel to ours.”

    The call for the removal of “A Fire in My Belly” by Catholic League president William Donahue is based on his misinterpretation that this work was “hate speech pure and simple.” This statement insults the legacy of Wojnarowicz, who dedicated his life to activism and the arts community. David Wojnarowicz’s work is collected by international museums including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Whitney Museum, The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Reina Sofia in Madrid, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, etc. Wojnarowicz is also an established writer; his most well known memoirs are Close to the Knives and Memories That Smell Like Gasoline, which are included on many university syllabi.

    In 1992 the artist won a historic Supreme Court case, David Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association. The courts sided with Wojnarowicz after he filed suit against Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association, who copied, distorted and disseminated the artist’s images in a pamphlet to speak out against the NEA’s funding of exhibits that included art works of Wojnarowicz and other artists. We are deeply troubled that the remarks, which led to the removal of David’s work from Hide/Seek, so closely resemble those of the past. Wojnarowicz’s fight for freedom of artistic expression, once supported by the highest court, is now challenged again. In his absence, we know that his community, his supporters, and the many who believe in his work will carry his convictions forward.

    Comment by SHARP — Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 @ 7:18 PM

  3. admin  •  Mar 16, 2011 @11:41 am

    Catholic League:
    450 Seventh Avenue
    New York, NY 10123
    (212) 371-3191
    Fax: (212) 371-3394

    John Boehner
    Washington, D.C. Office
    1011 Longworth H.O.B.
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-6205
    Fax: (202) 225-0704

    Eric Cantor
    Washington, DC Office
    329 Cannon Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    P: 202.225-2815
    F: 202.225-0011

    NPR Coverage

    Comment by SHARP — Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 @ 8:29 PM

  4. admin  •  Mar 16, 2011 @11:44 am

    Gay Bashing at the Smithsonian
    By FRANK RICH

    The Smithsonian’s behavior and the ensuing silence in official Washington are jarring echoes of those days when American political leaders stood by idly as the epidemic raged on. The incident is also a throwback to the culture wars we thought we were getting past now — most eerily the mother of them all, the cancellation of a Mapplethorpe exhibit (after he died of AIDS) at another Washington museum, the Corcoran, in 1989.

    Comment by SHARP — Friday, December 17th, 2010 @ 8:09 PM

  5. admin  •  Mar 16, 2011 @11:49 am

    ‘Hide/Seek’ (and Remove)
    December 6, 2010

    Jonathan D. Katz’s career as an art historian can be framed by controversies over federal support for art that offends some people — and specifically about art dealing with gay people.

    He was working on his dissertation, “Opposition, Incorporated: On the Homosexualization of Post-War American Art,” when in 1989 the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, called off an exhibit of sexually explicit work by Robert Mapplethorpe, amid calls from many conservative lawmakers to punish the National Endowment for the Arts for awarding a grant to the show. Since then, no major American art museum has attempted a show focused on gay sexuality — until one that just opened, co-curated by Katz.

    Since earning his Ph.D., Katz has become a leading force in gay studies and art history, serving as the first tenured faculty member in gay studies in the United States (at City College of San Francisco), becoming the founding director of the gay studies program at Yale University, curating exhibits, and publishing extensively on modern art. Last week, Katz found his latest exhibit center stage in another Washington controversy over federal support for art involving gay people.

    The new exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” is at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit’s guide says that the work “considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art — especially abstraction — were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment.” The periods covered range from the era when sexuality could only be hinted at to a more open society. The reviews have been strong, with The Washington Post calling it “one of the best thematic exhibitions in years,” with “powerful art.”

    But last week, the Smithsonian removed one controversial work — amid calls from some Republicans to have the show shut down, raising the question of how much has changed since 1989.

    Complete Story
    Comment by SHARP — Saturday, January 8th, 2011 @ 3:44 PM

  6. admin  •  Mar 16, 2011 @11:52 am

    The National Portrait Gallery Betrays Constitutional Principles
    A joint statement by the National Coalition Against Censorship, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, AICA-USA, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Association of American Publishers, Catholics for Choice, Defending Dissent Foundation, District of Columbia Advocates for the Arts, Advocates for the Arts District of Columbia Arts Center, The First Amendment Project, Provisions Library: Resources for Arts and Social Change, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, Washington Project for the Arts, and The Woodhull Freedom Foundation

    The removal of David Wojnarowicz’s 1987 video Fire in My Belly from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in response to pressure from the Catholic League and Republican Members of Congress is a shameful assault on First Amendment principles, which preclude government officials from using their financial and political power to determine what viewpoints should and should not be allowed into a public museum.

    The video was part of Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, an exhibition exploring issues of sexuality and specifically gay sexuality. After a sensationalizing review of the show published on CNSNews.com (formerly the Conservative News Service, a news website owned by the Media Research Center) the Catholic League objected to the exhibition and specifically David Wojnarowicz’ video, a work which is part death elegy about the artist’s mentor and lover Peter Hujar and part angry tirade about the AIDS epidemic. The video uses, among many others, images of crucifixes.

    Comment by SHARP — Saturday, January 15th, 2011 @ 11:33 AM

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