Meredith Jessup
The Blaze
11/29/2010
‘Tis the season for… homoerotica?
That‘s the apparent theme of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery’s Christmas season exhibition. According to CNSNews.com, the federal funded gallery’s exhibit features “images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen Degeneres grabbing her breasts and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show‘s catalog as ’homoerotic.’”
The exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” opened on Oct. 30 and will run throughout the Christmas Season, closing on Feb. 13.
“This is an exhibition that displays masterpieces of American portraiture and we wanted to illustrate how questions of biography and identity went into the making of images that are canonical,” David C. Ward, a National Portrait Gallery (NGP) historian who is also co-curator of the exhibit, told CNSNews.com.
According to the museum itself, the exhibit shows a commitment to “showing how a major theme in American history has been the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America’s promise of equality, inclusion and social dignity… These themes, historic and artistic, come together in ‘Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,’ the first major exhibition to examine the influence of gay and lesbian artists in creating modern American portraiture.”
“‘Hide/Seek’ chronicles how, as outsiders, gay and lesbian artists occupied a position that turned to their advantage, making essential contributions to both the art of portraiture and to the creation of modern American culture,” a plaque posted at the exhibit states.
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therightscoop has audio of Mark Levin (Levin blasts ant-covered Jesus exhibit):
Levin just has one question for the taxpayer-funded National Portrait Gallery. He wants to know when he can expect the ant-covered Muhammad exhibit?
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