At the end of November this year, the American National Portrait Gallery (one of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC) withdrew videos by artist David Voynarovicha (David Wojnarowicz), displayed at the exhibition "Hide and Seek: otherness and passion in the U.S. portraiture. The reason - hit some conservative citizens and organizations, declared that the work "offends the sensibilities of Christians».

Voynarovicha long dead, he died of AIDS in 1992, did not live up to forty years . On his illness Voynarovich learned in 1987, the same year from AIDS death of his mentor and lover - a famous photographer Peter Hudzhar (Peter Hujar).

Video Voynarovicha, entitled "Fire in my stomach »(A Fire in My Belly), dates from the years 1986-1987, and just talking about a plague of the XX century. The product consists of fragments of videotapes made in Mexico. Voynarovich used a set of images associated with death, violence and suffering: It is reported about the brutal crimes of the headlines, cockfights, Mesoamerican sculpture in the form of demonic creatures, made on the Day of the Dead sugar skull ... Vulnerability and helplessness in the face of violence is represented by such symbols as street beggars, the animals at slaughter, and - the crucifix, on which ants were crawling. That's the last piece and was deemed insulting Republicans.

main opponent of the show work was the Catholic League president William Donohue (William Donohue), known for his harsh remarks against gays and lesbians. He called the video "hate speech". Donohue was supported by some congressmen, Republicans and the far-right journalist Glenn Beck (Glenn Beck). One of their arguments was that the work is "upset Christians during the Christmas season." Donoghue and his colleagues are also outraged about the exposure of such works "at the taxpayers' money" (actually, the show was financed by private individuals and organizations, including the Andy Warhol Foundation, have provided $ 100 thousand).

The decision to remove the museum's work was met with active protests from the art community. The desire to show work in their expressed museums and galleries around the world, among them New York New Museum and Center for Contemporary Art Yerba Buena (San Francisco). Activist named Mike Bleyzenshteyn (Mike Blasenstein) stood at the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery with the iPad, which was demonstrated on the screen video (in a short time, however, he was fired, law enforcement officers). Transformer nonprofit organization organized the picket, which was attended by about 100 masked men Voynarovicha and Arthur Rimbaud (an allusion to the well-known artist photo shoot). In protest, the National Portrait Gallery has left the commission, James T. Bartlett (James T. Bartlett), said among those who in 2009 donated to the museum's development from one to 24 thousand dollars. Even more sharply reacted Warhol Foundation: its board of trustees unanimously decided to refuse funding for the National Portrait Gallery, if she does not return the work to the exhibition. In the past three years, fund transferred to the museum for a total of 375 thousand dollars. The organization's president Uohs Joel (Joel Wachs) expressed the hope that other donors will follow their example. The actions of the museum also condemned the American Association of Museum Directors.

David Voynarovich is one of the most important American artists who created works on the themes of homophobia and AIDS. In early 1990 the court sided with him in conflict with the conservative American Association for the protection of family values, sent to members of Congress and the media selection of the most "indecent" fragments of his collages. The judges agreed that by cutting the work, the Association presented them in a distorted manner. On the question of the use of the image of Christ crucified in one of the works Voynarovich replied that it symbolizes Christ above all suffering humanity. (This is a collage "Untitled (Genet)" (1979), where Christ is depicted with a syringe sticking out of the vein. The theme of the paper is drug addiction. According to the artist, he wanted to create a "modern image" of Christ who took upon himself all suffering of victims of abuse.)

material was prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: nytimes.com , washingtonpost.com , artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru