Ant-Covered Jesus

On Monday, CNSNews alerted taxpayers to the fact that our money is being used to fund an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, a museum of the Smithsonian Institution, that includes a video showing an image of Jesus on the cross with ants crawling over his body and face.

The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that 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.

A plaque fixed to the wall at the entrance to the exhibit says that the National Portrait Gallery is “committed 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. As America’s museum of national biography, the NPG is also vitally interested in the art of portrayal and how portraiture reflects our ideas about ourselves and others.

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," says the plaque. "'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."

The Smithsonian Institution has an annual budget of $761 million, 65 percent of which comes from the federal government, according to Linda St. Thomas, the Smithsonian's chief spokesperson. The National Portrait Gallery itself received $5.8 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2010, according to St. Thomas. It also received $5.8 million in federal funding in fiscal 2009, according to the museum’s annual report. The gallery’s overall funding in that year was $8 million.

St. Thomas told CNSNews.com that federal funds are not used to pay for Smithsonian exhibits themselves, including the “Hide/Seek” exhibit. The federal funds received by the Smithsonian, she said, pay for the buildings, the care of collections exhibited at Smithsonian venues, and museum staff, including the salaries for curators of exhibits. The exhibits presented at Smithsonian museums, including “Hide/Seek,” are funded by donations from individuals or institutions. Among the donors who provided support for the “Hide/Seek” exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery are The Calamus Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The John Burton Harter Charitable Foundation, and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and a former senior economist on the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told CNSNews.com, "If the Smithsonian didn't have the taxpayer-funded building, they would have no space to present the exhibit, right? In my own view, if someone takes taxpayer money, then I think the taxpayers have every right to question the institutions where the money's going."

View images from the exhibit at CNSNews.

WARNING: This story contains graphic photographs of items on display in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.

If a museum takes taxpayer funds, it's perfectly legitimate for taxpayers to question how OUR money is being spent. That museum is accountable to us.

The argument that no taxpayer dollars go toward the exhibits is ridiculous.

If the taxpayers didn't provide for the buildings and salaries of the museum staff, including the curators, there wouldn't be a place for the exhibits.

It's a silly distinction to say that donations from individuals and institutions pay for the exhibits and no federal funds are applied. That's a numbers game.

The operating costs of the National Portrait Gallery, federal funds, make it possible to show the exhibits.

Let private donors cover all the costs and take away the 65 percent of its $761 million annual budget currently covered by our tax dollars.

If private donors want to show an ant-covered Jesus nailed to the cross, then they can have at it. But I don't want to fund something so offensive.

What are the people at the National Portrait Gallery thinking? Here's a nice exhibit to be in place for the holidays!

Crazy.



On Tuesday, CNSNews reported that the Smithsonian was pulling the video of the image of Jesus.

The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, a museum of the Smithsonian Institution, announced today that it will remove from one of its exhibitions a video that includes images of ants swarming over Jesus Christ on a crucifix, but will keep in place images of naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, a painting of a male nude that the Smithsonian itelf describes as "homoerotic," and a painting made with nail polish and the cremated ashes of a man with AIDS who committed suicide.

The video that showed the crucifix crawling with ants also showed a man's nude frontal image, a mouth being sewn shut, bowls of blood, and mummified humans.

The action by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery came after CNSNews.com reported details of the exhibit on Monday and reaction to the report sparked criticism from religious leaders and members of Congress. House Speaker-to-be John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and House Majority Leader-to-be Eric Cantor (R-Va.) both told CNSNews.com earlier today they want the exhibit cancelled.

On Tuesday, Martin Sullivan, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, issued the following statement:

“’Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture’ is an exhibition of 105 works of art that span more than a century of American art and culture. One work, a four-minute video portrait by artist David Wojnarowicz (1987), shows images that may be offensive to some. The exhibition also includes works by highly regarded artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Thomas Eakins and Annie Leibowitz.

“I regret that some reports about the exhibit have created an impression that the video is intentionally sacrilegious. In fact, the artist’s intention was to depict the suffering of an AIDS victim.

“It was not the museum’s intention to offend. We are removing the video today.”

It wasn't the museum's intention to offend.

How could they not realize that the video was offensive?

Why did it take the involvement of religious leaders and members of Congress to prompt the museum to show some decency and exercise some proper judgment?

It's simple. The Leftists are so out of touch with the values of Americans that they didn't think twice about the offensive nature of the exhibit.

What matters is that the video has been removed and tax dollars are no longer being used to display an image of an ant-covered Jesus.
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In a stunningly hypocritical move, but totally true to form, CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, did not call for the disrespectful depiction of Jesus to be removed from the exhibit.

CNSNews reports:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it supports “common decency” and “mutual respect,” but CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper stopped short of calling for the removal of an exhibit that features images of an ant-covered Jesus and “homoerotic art” currently at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.

“We don’t want to be in a position of banning art or censoring art,” Hooper told CNSNews.com on Tuesday.

Unless of course that "art" happens to depict Mohammed.