New NPR Gay Art 同志藝術創作挑戰保守派極限

Artist: David Wojnarovicz : A Fire in My Belly
Picture from SMART Museum of Art
The University of Chicago

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Guy Raz.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

The Smithsonian Institution is under fire遭到抨擊. At issue is what is being touted稱之為 as the first major exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture.

The show is called "Hide/Seek," and NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports on why it's turning some heads. 引發關注

ELIZABETH BLAIR: There are some very famous artists represented in the show "Hide/Seek"躲貓貓: Andy Warhol, Walt Whitman, Jasper Johns, among many others. But the work that so far has been the most controversial is a provocative挑釁 video by the late artist David Wojnarowicz.

Ms. DIAMANDA GALAS (Singer/Songwriter): When any man hath an issue out of his flesh.肉體..

BLAIR: The work is called "A Fire In My Belly." Martin Sullivan, director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, says the artist created the 1987 work as a response to the agony痛苦 and suffering of his partner, who at the time was dying of AIDS. Sullivan describes the work.

Mr. MARTIN SULLIVAN (Director, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian): Vivid colors, fairly grotesque古怪的 scenes, parts of the human body. It's more kind of a meditation沉思/冥想 on the fragility of the flesh.肉體的脆弱

BLAIR: Included in that meditation is a crucifix十字架, a cross bearing the body of Christ, crawling with ants.爬滿了螞蟻

Mr. PHIL DONOHUE (President, The Catholic League): The Smithsonian would never have their little ants crawling all over an image of Mohammed.穆罕穆德

BLAIR: Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League美國天主教聯盟主席, calls the video hate speech煽動仇恨的言論 and complained to members of Congress美國國會議員 and the Smithsonian's board of regents.董事會成員

Mr. DONOHUE: And my principle原則 is very simple: If it is wrong for the government to take the taxpayers' money to promote religion發揚宗教, why is it acceptable for the government to take the taxpayers' money to assault攻擊 religion?

BLAIR: Donohue admits he has not seen the exhibition "Hide/Seek," but he did see the video images of the ants on the crucifix online.

His concerns echo呼應 those of others who've complained to the National Portrait Gallery美國國家肖像藝廊, says Martin Sullivan. So he decided to remove "A Fire In My Belly" from the show.

Mr. SULLIVAN: The concern that people of the Christian faith were apparently telling us: Well, you wouldn't do this to a Muslim回教的 image, and so forth, was distracting from the larger and more important themes of the show, which is why we did the exhibition in the first place.

BLAIR: At least one critic評論家 has accused the Smithsonian of caving in to pressure from屈服於…的壓力 two Republican members of Congress. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia called the exhibition, quote, "an outrageous 離譜的use of taxpayer money納稅人的錢." And a spokesperson for House Speaker-to-be即將成為美國國會發言人 John Boehner told The Hill newspaper that, quote, "Smithsonian officials should either acknowledge the mistake承認錯誤 or be prepared to face tough scrutiny更嚴苛的審視 beginning in January."

Political football?政治足球(指的是一個與政治相關的議題，不斷引發各派討論與爭議，卻一直無法解決 You bet, says Lee Rosenbaum, who writes about the arts for The Wall Street Journal. In her blog, culturegrrl on artsjournal.com, she says a show like this could be too controversial for a federal institution聯邦機構.

Ms. LEE ROSENBAUM (Writer, Wall Street Journal): Most of its artists are down the middle of the fairway坦途,(高爾夫球術語，意指平坦的球道，好打的球道) you know, big-name American artists like Eakins, Bellows, Hartley, O'Keeffe even. The problem is that it's such an easy target容易被攻訐的目標 for conservative politicians保守政客 at this particular time, when they're looking for cuts預算刪減, when they're looking for differences with the administration, to look at a federal institution, which the National Portrait Gallery is, and to try to make that into a big issue擴大議題引發爭議.

BLAIR: A spokesperson for the Smithsonian says, since the show opened on October 30th, the National Portrait Gallery received only one complaint抱怨/投訴 from a visitor. The gallery's Martin Sullivan says the rest of the exhibition will remain open until mid-February.

Elizabeth Blair, NPR News, Washington.