Art News

Edgy Brooklyn Museum to show film of ants on crucifix

NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP).- A major exhibition that includes a film of ants crawling on a crucifix opens next week at the Brooklyn Museum, an institution known for presenting edgy and bold artworks that in the past included a painting of the Virgin Mary that incorporated elephant dung. “A Fire in My Belly” is a film by the late David Wojnarowicz that was pulled from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., when the exhibition was shown there last year. The ant scene angered some in Congress, and the Catholic League called the work sacrilegious. It is one of more than 100 pieces in “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” the first major museum exhibition to explore how gender and sexual identity have shaped American art. Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman said Wednesday that the museum wanted to present the exhibition “clearly because it’s such an important aspect