Hide/Seek Timeline: January 2011
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Continued from: Hide/Seek Timeline: Part 2
See also: Hide/Seek Timeline: Part 1
January 5, 2011
PEN American Center. "Letter to the Smithsonian Board of Regents".
January 6, 2011
[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-new-smithsonian-20101206,0,6416921.story Knight, Christopher. "Critic's Notebook: Smithsonian Institution fails to stand up to anti-gay bullies
Pressure groups succeed in getting a piece removed from a show about gay identity in art at the National Portrait Gallery. Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2010.]
January 10, 2011
PEN American Center. "PEN Calls on Smithsonian Institution to Reinstate Controversial Video.
January 11, 2011
Blasenstein, Mike, and Michael Dax Iacovone: Museum of Censored Art, January 11, 2011 Press release announcing opening of Museum of Censored Art on January 13, 2011, in Washington, D.C.
January 12, 2011
January 13, 2011
Catholic Leage. "MoMA HOSTS VILE VIDEO"
- January 13, 2011
- New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has acquired the video showing ants crawling all over Jesus on the Cross that was withdrawn from the Smithsonian Institution on November 30 after a protest by the Catholic League, and complaints from congressmen. MoMA also has the original 13-minute version; the video is being shown, starting today.
- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
- In Tucson, President Barack Obama correctly noted that "our discourse has become so sharply polarized" that it has disfigured our society. He made note of the "lack of civility" which marks our culture, beckoning us to "sharpen our instincts for empathy." And just one day later, MoMA announced that he was wrong. It wants a sharply polarized society; it delights in incivility; and it abhors empathy. That is why it has decided to assault Christian sensibilities by hosting the vile video.
- "We really do live in a time when anything can be hailed as a work of art. This has naturally led to a proliferation of pretentious and often pathological nonsense in the art world." Those words were penned ten years ago by noted art critic Roger Kimball. As evidenced by the reaction to this "artwork" by the artistic community, nothing has changed.
- Unlike the Smithsonian, which is federally funded, MoMA is largely supported by fat cats like Glenn D. Lowry, the museum's director, thus alleviating some of our objections. Lowry makes over $2 million a year and lives for free in a $6 million condo atop the museum. Unlike the rest of us, he pays no income tax on his housing.
- Looks like the artistic community got fleeced twice: once by embracing the "pathological nonsense" of this masterpiece, and once by the corporate welfare queen who runs—and lives in—the joint.
- Contact Lowry: glenn_lowry@moma.org
January 14, 2011
January 15, 2011
January 18, 2011
January 20, 2011
January 21, 2011
Culture Monster, Los Angeles Times. "Smithsonian chief Clough says his decision to remove AIDS video was hasty but not censorship". January 21, 2011 | 9:15 am
- G. Wayne Clough, head of the Smithsonian Institution, acknowledged Thursday that he acted too quickly before deciding Nov. 30 to remove a controversial video from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
- In an interview after a long-planned speaking engagement in downtown L.A., Clough said the decision to remove David Wojnarowicz's 1987 AIDS-protest video, "A Fire in My Belly," on the same day that two top Republican congressmen had complained that the exhibition offended Christian sensibilities, was "the most painful thing I've ever done," but denied it could properly be called censorship.
- Clough said threats of budgetary consequences by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House majority leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) played into his decision, but a primary concern was preventing a media pile-on that would "hijack" the exhibition by turning the discussion away from the art on display and make it an excuse for a heated and polarizing debate of tangential issues.
- Clough spoke proudly of "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" being the first major museum exhibition devoted primarily to gay and lesbian artists' sensibilities. The full story from the interview is here.
- In his 20-minute talk at the downtown Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Clough noted the protesters who had marched outside over his removal of the video.
- "To those folks who were demonstrating outside this venue, I offer my support for their expression of free speech," Clough said. "I attended Berkeley during the 1960s, so I know something about protests [He earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering there in 1969.] They are valuable in gathering attention to issues."
January 27, 2011
Board of Trustees, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. An Open Letter
- From Our Board
- An Open Letter from the Board of Trustees, January 2011
- In recent weeks, there has been much discussion and concern, both internally and publicly, regarding the decision to remove a work by David Wojnarowicz from the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. This decision raises crucial questions-for us, for our visitors, artists, museum supporters, and colleagues-about the role and responsibility of publicly supported museums to engage with complex and sometimes sensitive topics.
- We would like first to commend the National Portrait Gallery for having the courage to undertake the kind of timely, exploratory exhibition appropriate to an institution with a scholarly agenda. As we understand it, many museums turned down the opportunity to present this show.
- Art has always and will continue to raise or respond to cultural and social issues in the world-it does not back away. It challenges us all to confront the ways in which we think about our collective past, present, and future.
- The attempt by any individual or group to restrict the content-not only artistic, but cultural, historical, and scientific-that may be shown in an institution that serves the public as a whole is counter not only to the founding American principle of freedom of thought and expression, but also to the spirit of inquiry at the core of the Smithsonian's mission. Hence we are deeply troubled by the precedent the Institution's leadership has set with its decision. We believe that bowing to pressure with regard to the works on view in its galleries harms the integrity of the individual Smithsonian units and the Institution as a whole. If dissension arises over the presentation of a piece, then rather than remove it, that is the very moment to initiate conversation so that all perceptions may be heard in an effort to create greater awareness and understanding.
- We understand the complexity of the Smithsonian's current situation and appreciate the scale of pressures put on its leadership and are encouraged by Secretary Clough's recent statements about a desire to continue the dialogue on this important issue. We look forward to participating in this conversation and welcome your thoughts and suggestions as well.
January 29, 2011
See also: Hide/Seek.org
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