More Support For Warhol Foundation Comes From Art Matters

(12-17-10) Art Matters has added its voice to the Smithsonian debate. Their letter of support follows:

December 17th, 2010

Joel Wachs

Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art

Dear Joel,

On behalf of all of us at Art Matters, I am writing to thank you for your fantastic leadership in response to the National Portrait Gallery’s decision to remove David Wojnarowicz’s video from its exhibition, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Our board has drafted the following statement:

The Art Matters Board stands in solidarity with our colleagues at the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art in condemning the recent decision by the National Portrait Gallery to remove the video “Fire in My Belly” by David Wojnarowicz from its exhibition, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, and in demanding that the censored work be restored immediately.

It was a bold move for the National Portrait Gallery to organize the exhibition, and a sad irony that it chose to censor an artwork that so clearly embodies its themes. American culture has been indelibly marked by queer artists who had to disguise their sexuality/desire. Wojnarowicz’s video not only captures the intense anger and despair of the decade of AIDS' heaviest impact, but also implicates a society in which "difference" is a death warrant.

Art Matters supports this important American artwork and deplores the fear, hatred and homophobia to which the National Portrait Gallery succumbed in censoring it.

The Art Matters Board

Regine Basha, Mary Beebe, Cee Scott Brown, Laura Donnelley, Linda Earle, Gai Gherardi, Alexander Gray, David Mendoza, Laurence Miller, Lowery Sims, Marianne Weems, Philip Yenawine, Bruce Yonemoto

We hope we can add to the momentum.

Warmly,

Sacha Yanow

Director, Art Matters