ABSTRACT
Although the past twenty years have undoubtedly seen increased visibility of same-sex love and desire in museums, galleries and heritage sites of all kinds, it would be inaccurate to assume from this an onward progression of ever-greater openness or a neat and uninterrupted trajectory of growing inclusion, equality and respect. In 2013, more than two years after the relation - ship between Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns had been openly explored in Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, a small exhibition opened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. For at least one critic, the museum’s presentation, once again, obscured the truth about the artists and, in doing so, omitted information critical for visitors to fully appreciate and understand their work. Featuring work from MoMA’s collection, ‘Johns and Rauschenberg’ displayed paintings by the artists from the mid-to-late 1950s, using Rauschenberg’s Canyon (recently acquired by the museum), as a centrepiece. As Mark Joseph Stern (2013) wrote:
The introductory placard describes the two artists as being ‘in dialogue with one another,’ . . . At the heart of the installation is the relationship between the two men, an intensely collaborative yet highly competitive connection which pushed each artist toward his own artistic triumph.
