Portrait Gallery removes artwork after outcry

TBD reports that the Portrait Gallery is removing a piece of art from its current exhibit entitled Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.

The Portrait Gallery describes the exhibit:

"This is the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture. “Hide/Seek” considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment."

The artwork removed was A Fire in My Belly, a video by artist David Wojnarowicz.  The video shows Jesus on the cross with ants crawling all over his body and face.

The piece was removed after outcry following a report by CNS news that described the exhibit as one that includes imagery of genitalia, homoerotic situations, and Christ covered in ants.