Tag Archive "national-portrait-gallery"

‘Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture’; an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

There are now two stories about Hide/Seek: the exhibition, and the controversy. This piece will cover the first; a second one will address the controversy. Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, at the National Portrait Gallery, (NPG) , Smithsonian Institution through Feb. 13, 2011) is a serious examination of artistic conventions, particularly those of portraiture, as they concern a subject heretofore unspoken in the polite precincts of mainstream American museums. It addresses the manner, sometimes overt but often hidden, in which sexual difference has been manifest. The artists and their sitters include straight, gay, and the fluid range of ... More » »

Monday links roundup – Wojnarowicz censorship at the Smithsonian

You may be following the story about the censorship of the art exhibit at the Smithsonian in which a video by AIDS-activist artist David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was pulled from the show after House Republicans said it was anti-Catholic and should be removed.  Frank Rich in Sunday’s NY Times calls it an outrageous case of homophobia.

In D.C.: “Portraiture Now: Communities” at the National Portrait Gallery and “Falnama; The Book of Omens” at the Sackler

Last week I visited Portraiture Now: Communities, at the National Portrait Gallery through July 5, 2010, with paintings by Rose Frantzen, Jim Torok and Rebecca Westcott.  It was organized around the idea of portraits of groups.  Not group portraits, but individual portraits of people connected by familial relations, friendship with the artist or by virtue of living in the same, small community.

“Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture” at the National Portrait Gallery

Marcel Duchamp, joker that he was, would certainly be amused at the thought that he’s the subject of an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, of all places.  And a lively and fascinating exhibition it is! At least one federal institution is taking a liberal attitude to immigration, albeit legal, as Duchamp became a naturalized citizen in 1955.