The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution is presenting a yuletide showing of such images as an ant-covered Jesus, Ellen DeGeneres clutching her breasts, naked male genitalia — and a painting the Smithsonian describes as "homoerotic" in its catalogue.
The federally funded exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” runs through the Christmas season, closing on Feb. 13.
“This is an exhibition that displays masterpieces of American portraiture and we wanted to illustrate how questions of biography and identity went into the making of images that are canonical,” David C. Ward, a National Portrait Gallery historian tells
CNSNews.com.