The Andy Warhol Foundation Threatens to End Smithsonian Funding

WASHINGTON (AP).- The Andy Warhol Foundation said Monday it will withhold future funding to the Smithsonian Institution unless a video removed from the National Portrait Gallery after a Catholic group complained is restored. Joel Wachs, president of the foundation, said its board voted Friday to demand the video by late artist David Wojnarowicz — which depicts ants crawling on a crucifix — be reinstalled at the gallery. The board sent a letter and e-mail Monday to Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough. The Warhol Foundation has been proud a supporter of the current Portrait Gallery exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” Wachs wrote. It is the first major museum exhibit to explore the impact of sexual orientation on art history. “Such blatant censorship is unconscionable,” he wrote. “We cannot stand by and watch the Smithsonian bow to the demands of bigots who have

Back To Top