WASHINGTON — Officials at the National Portrait Gallery removed a work of video art Tuesday depicting Christ with ants crawling over him after complaints from a Catholic organization and members of Congress.
The four-minute video, created by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, had been on exhibit since Oct. 30 as part of a show on sexual difference in American portraiture.
The piece was called “hate speech” by Catholic League president William Donohue and a misuse of taxpayer money by an aide to Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio.
A museum official said Wojnarowicz’s intention was to depict the suffering of an AIDS victim. Part of the idea is that humans are made in Christ’s image and that “we’re all going back into the earth, that we’re decaying,” he said.
