Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Where in the world can you find naked brothers kissing, an ant-covered Jesus, men in chains, and Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts all in one place?
No, not the ninth circle of Dante's hell--but close!
You'll find these inflammatory images at a new exhibit of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery which, like most things in Washington DC, is funded by your precious taxpayer dollars. In fact, according to a spokesperson from the museum, at $750,000, this exhibit is the most expensive one to date at the National Portrait Gallery.
The exhibit, which has the sort of title you can only get when academics team up with government bureaucrats--"Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture"--runs through the holidays, closing right before Valentines Day, on February 13th.
Merry Christmas, America! I would post more of the pictures here, but they violate the CoC.
I haven't seen the exhibit, but from what I gather, to call its contents art would be a stretch. It's more like politics, crudely illustrated. What's the political agenda?
According to CNSNews, a plaque at the entrance to the exhibit says 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...'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.
These major themes of American history are illustrated with images of male genitals. Oh, and see the picture above with the bloody lips? I'm guessing that has something to do with how society has silenced gay men with bloody stitches. I think it's supposed to be deep. Really, though, it's predictable. And boring. And outdated. In Washington DC, gay people now have the right to marry, after all.
What's worse, the exhibit has nothing to do with Art, Beauty, or Aesthetics. With its violent and ugly images, the exhibit, in fact, is an assault on beauty. But that's what happens when you mix politics with art, I suppose.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
No naughty pictures of Muhhamed, I'll wager.
Jul '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
This reminds me of a story dating back to the Meese Commission on Pornography.
The panel had just finished watching a film that featured two naked men sword-fighting with their penises.
When the lights went up, one panelist, a crusty retired Federal judge, turned to another and remarked, "Well, I don't know if that's obscene. But it's stupid."
Nov '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. :
According to CNSNews, a plaque at the entrance to the exhibit says the National Portrait Gallery is
"Equality, inclusion, and social dignity"? Seriously? Whatever happened to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? I have never seen such an utter crock in my life. This PC-motivated crud should be condemned in the most profane and obscene terms possible.
It is times like this when the Ricochet CoC is actually a hindrance to honest debate and criticism.
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:05amRe: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Lady Kurobara
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. :
According to CNSNews, a plaque at the entrance to the exhibit says the National Portrait Gallery is
"Equality, inclusion, and social dignity"? Seriously? Whatever happened to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? I have never seen such an utter crock in my life. This PC-motivated crud should be condemned in the most profane and obscene terms possible.
It is times like this when the Ricochet CoC is actually a hindrance to honest debate and criticism. · Nov 30 at 8:00am
Edited on Nov 30 at 08:05 am
I hear you, Lady. If you go to the CNSNews story, there will be some images from the exhibit you can look at. Ditto the official exhibit's website, where you can see a totally unerotic Ellen DeGeneres grabbing herself.
May '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
"I haven't seen the exhibit, but from what I gather, to call its contents art would be a stretch." Emily, that statement really negates any legitimate criticism that you might have. See the entire exhibit, then make a judgment. But this approach is just puritanical. What's next, take down the Washington Monument, because it's phallic reference offends our delicate sensibilities?!
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:15amNov '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
The thing that really galls me is this:
While the exhibit claims to be a celebration of "equality" (among other things), it is nothing of the kind, for it strongly implies that gays are better than straights, because gays are, like, you know, just so goshdarn cool. Like, edgy, dude.
Worse than being obscene, the exhibit is puerile, adolescent and downright infantile.
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:21amMay '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
"Social dignity"? Indeed, Emily, this exhibit promotes anything but.
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Has Rev. Graham issued a death threat against those responsible for the ant-covered Jesus yet? Are there riots in the streets? No? That response would be reserved for practitioners of the religion of peace. But we're the intolerant ones, right?
Aug '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Aug '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
So who is going to get full Giuliani and do a piss Christ routine on this travesty ?
After all Rudy was the Mayor at the time. Do we expect Obama to do anything, he's too busy hanging balls on his tree with images of MaoTseTung with Kevin Jennings trimming the children's playroom with condoms.
Are they smearing the Portland mosque with elephant dung yet ?
Pretty sure that social dignity is an earned status, but these folks think by letting their bits hang out, they are going to get it for naught. If it really is some kind of gay statement, then wouldn't they have uncles crawling all over Jesus rather than ants ?
Aug '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
It is tempting to try to make fun of these artists and their art. (I use the word "art" reluctantly, in this case.) But they are beyond parody.
Sep '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
where you can see a totally unerotic Ellen DeGeneres grabbing herself.
10 seconds of my life that I can never have back. This message brought to you by the executive producers of The Insider, The Dark Knight, and Fruit of the Loom.
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:38amMay '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Oh Yawn, another lot of 2nd Rate Mapplethorpes and Serannos. How very unoriginal, more 80's retro we don't need.
G-d, at least Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils was beautifully photographed, and no doubt more original in its attempt to shock. For a society awash in pornography, does the government have to fund that as well....
Can't the GOP's in Congress remove funding from NPG whilst they're at it with NPR defunding?
If you want to be really edgy (in all possible meanings) try being a Rushdie or a Kurt Westergaard. That takes really courage, and a life time of "Hide and Seek" with a real desire of "Self" (-extinction) via the jihadiis.
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:43amMay '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
I also think it's important to point out that the images you posted are stills from the same video, guerilla shots no less, probably taken with a camera phone by some ignorant philistine. In fact, most of the objectionable content is from the "Fire In My Belly" video. If you want a better idea of what the exhibition is about by the curators who actually went to the trouble of putting it together, then check it out online here. Many of those pieces have been exhibited in DC area museums before. I've seen several in person.
Don't you hate it when someone writes a 400 page book, then someone takes a few sentences out of context and uses them to smear the author? This is same thing.
Nov '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed.
...you can see a totally unerotic Ellen DeGeneres grabbing herself.
"Unerotic" is an understatement. Ellen looks like a homely, sleazy transsexual, post surgery, playing with his/her new "toys." Lord, that is an unflattering picture.
Edited on Nov 30, 2010 at 8:54amMay '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Kings make good patrons of the arts but not so much constitutional democracies. I agree that most of this stuff is far less profound or "shocking" than its curators believe it to be. But neither do I think it makes sense to judge art by popular plebiscite. Just because something is offensive doesn't disqualify it has art. The simplest solution is to get government out of the patron role and let artists duke it out with the market and history.
Jul '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
I know art when I see it. Michelangelo's David, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Ghiberti's doors on the Florence duomo. That's art.
Ellen DeGeneres cupping her boobs? That ain't.
May '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. :
You'll find these inflammatory images at a new exhibit of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery which, like most things in Washington DC, is funded by your precious taxpayer dollars. In fact, according to a spokesperson from the museum, at $750,000, this exhibit is the most expensive one to date at the National Portrait Gallery.
It's almost as if these folks, along with NPR, are just begging to be de-funded. In Federal terms the dollar amounts are tiny, but it's "the thought that counts." These artists have loads of anger and contempt for the American public, and are free to express it, of course, but they have gone further and forced that same public to pay for chance to be abused. Quite an accomplishment.
Perhaps the de-funding could be accompanied by some ritual or ceremony, as a piece of performance art. That would certainly be "edgy", no? If these artists have freedom to express their contempt, why not the taxpayers?
Aug '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
This is spot on. Get the government out of the arts. When considered, it's so oxymoronic. "Duke it out with the market" is a rule that can be applied to so many aspects of their overreach.
Nov '10
Re: Naked Brothers Making Out, or Merry Xmas from the Smithsonian!
You are being naive and, perhaps, a tad disengenuous. Consider this:
Suppose a museum exhibits 100 items. Ninety-nine are Disney-related — paintings, studio sketches and animation cels. One is a Mapplethorpe — a big, glossy black and white photo of a naked man with a bullwhip up his anus.
Do you think that the Mapplethorpe just might make a disproportionate impression? That its presence might "color" the rest of the exhibit? If outraged parents express their disapproval, do you think they will be placated if you say, "Well, gee, there's nothing objectionable about the other 99 pictures"?
Yes, that is a very extreme scenario, but the easiest way to solve any debate is by pushing each side of an argument to its logical extreme. The weaker argument will always collapse first.
Keeping things in context is important, but sometimes a single thing can obliterate its context.