Art museum directors issue stern Smithsonian rebuke

The Assn. of Art Museum Directors today issued an unusual, strongly worded rebuke to the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., for censoring a work of art included in the critically acclaimed exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture."

The show opened in October and continues until Feb. 13.

Earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough created a storm of protest when he ordered the removal of a short excerpt of “A Fire in My Belly,” a 30-minute video made in 1987 by David Wojnarowicz (1954-92). The video is a searing meditation on aspects of the AIDS pandemic. The decision to remove it came in the wake of calls by House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) and incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to dismantle the privately funded exhibition.

The statement from North America's largest art museum professional organization described the Smithsonian's decision as having resulted from political pressure:

"More disturbing than the Smithsonian’s decision to remove this work of art is the cause: unwarranted and uninformed censorship from politicians and other public figures, many of whom, by their own admission, have seen neither the exhibition as a whole or this specific work.

"The AAMD believes that freedom of expression is essential to the health and welfare of our communities and our nation. In this case, that takes the form of the rights and opportunities of art museums to present works of art that express different points of view."

The statement puts the AAMD at odds with Ford W. Bell, president of the American Assn. of Museums, who told the Washington Post Wednesday that pulling the art was the right thing to do. The AAM represents a wide array of nonprofit institutions, including history, science and art museums.

The AAMD represents 198 art museum directors in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The full statement on the Smithsonian's decision to censor the exhibition can be found on the AAMD website.

--Christopher Knight

@twitter.com/KnightLAT

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Comments

[wes andrews]

Christopher Knight please keep this story relevant with follow up coverage.

[janjamm]

It seems we may be entering a long, dark night.

[Leslie]

This brings back old memories of the Robert Mapplethorpe censorship controversy.

[Dino Dinco]

Mr. Knight:

NYU's Fales Library sent a DVD to UCLA that contains both DW's unfinished "A Fire In My Belly" (13 minutes in length, not 30, as reported in many places, and without sound) as well as an additional, related 7 minute reel (also silent) that was found in DW's possessions. Four minutes of this 7 minutes reel is what appears on YouTube and elsewhere. Of the 20 collective minutes, the bulk of the footage appear to be of reportage style shots that DW shot on Super 8 in Mexico of street culture, bull- and cockfighting, skulls and other familiar Mexican iconography.

The ant on crucifix segment lasts but a few seconds and seamlessly fits into the context of the other imagery. Critics of the work who are labeling it unfit, un-Christian, un-Christmas, etc. aren't bothering (or willing) to even consider the work as a whole, albeit unfinished.

The DVD (the 13 minute "work-in-progress" (written as such by DW as the closing title of the clip) as well as the 7 minute reel) was screening on a loop at the UCLA MFA Open Studios in Culver City last night.

A letter from the Fales Library is posted next to the monitor and attempts to clear up some of the mis-reported details about the work.

[Stephanie Williams]

This is ridiculous, how is America supposed to operate under the Constitution, namely the First Amendment, if the government is allowed to censor art?

[John]

Gee, that would scare the bejeez out of me to get a "stern rebuke" from a bunch of girlie art museum directors.

[Hypatia]

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has caved. Remember the Air & Space Museum declining to exhibit a WW II work? Unless people deluge them with protests -- AND tell your Cong. Reps to threaten to withhold funding if they monkey around again -- this anti First Amendmen and Art censorship will continue.