Opening shot from Museum of Modern Art’s new acquisition
As I discovered firsthand when I visited the New Museum recently to view two different versions of “A Fire in My Belly,” the question we should be asking about the David Wojnarovicz video that was removed from the National Portrait Gallery’s “Hide/Seek” show is not merely Whose “Belly” Is It?. (I’ve argued that the clip that was fleetingly displayed by the NPG and posthumously edited by its curator is not truly the artist’s work.)
I now realize, more strongly than ever, that we also need to ask: “Which ‘Belly’ Is It?”
Through Jan. 23, the New Museum is continuously screening in its lobby two different “Fires”—both without soundtrack, which is how Wojnarovicz left them. The seven-minute version, which builds in momentum to an apocalyptic climax, was found in the artist’s studio after his death and is far more powerful and transfixing than the more diffuse 13-minute version, known during his lifetime, or the NPG’s more recent four-minute bowdlerized version (not on view at the New Museum). The NPG’s label for the video (reproduced at the first link in this post) stated that there was originally a 30-minute version.
New evidence that David Wojnarovicz’s artworld reputation has gotten a major boost from this otherwise counterproductive contretemps came with yesterday’s proud announcement by the Museum of Modern Art that it has become “the first institution to acquire” Wojnarovicz’s “Fire” (both the 13- and seven-minute versions), now on display in its galleries. “Belly” joins 12 other works by the artist in the museum’s collection.
And in other “Belly” growls—the NPG has now announced the schedule for its marathon “Hide/Seek” symposium, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. on Jan. 28. It appears to be not at all about the show and the rancorous debate it inspired, but about “New Scholarship in Sexuality and American Art.”