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Written by Kat Murrell
May 19, 2011
From David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly” – Photo: Courtesy
A head’s up for a very important art event coming our way. On May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Art Museum, one of the curators from the controversial exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” will discuss the show and the issues it stimulated. Jonathan D. Katz, chair of the visual studies doctoral program at SUNY Buffalo, is probably the country’s foremost LBGT scholar in the field of art history.
“Hide/Seek” was an exhibition that ran Oct. 30, 2010,-Feb. 13 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. It was the first exhibition at a major American museum in more than 20 years to address the theme of same-sex desire. Despite the high level of scholarship and rigorous research, the show came under assault by the Catholic League and conservative members of Congress because of David Wojnarowicz’s video, “A Fire in My Belly,” which included footage of ants on a crucifix. The video was removed from the exhibition. For many, this was a wound reminiscent of right-wing Sen. Jesse Helms’ 1989 assault on the Robert Mapplethorpe show.
Katz’s lecture at MAM is sponsored by Joseph Pabst and the Fine Arts Society of MAM.
Do not miss this important event. It is an honor for Milwaukee to the support this exhibition and assist in furthering the conversation about identity issues in art.
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