Alexanr Gay Art

Contents:

• THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
• GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS
• GAY LIFE DRAWGS
• GAYS DRAWGS

THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWorkg largely outsi the gallery system, a group of illtrators is revivg the disciple and refg how queer bodi are reprented MacConnell, “Ernie” 2014, waterlor and pen on paperLAST FALL, IN a ty apartment downtown New York, a 30-year-old gay physique mol named Matthew Williams stood naked agast a whe backdrop ont of the gay artist John MacConnell. Over the next 2, 000 years, pturg the naked male form beme an sential artistic skill, one that reached s apotheosis Wtern culture durg the Italian Renaissance, when homosexual sire was subtly exprsed Donatello’s bronze “David” (cir 1440) and Caravagg’s patg “The Micians” (1597), where the tradnal female me is replaced wh a band of boys, partially robed togas, referencg a Greek and Roman perd which homoeroti was a part of society. Classics profsor Andrew Lear, 59, who now ns Osr Wil Tours, a pany that offers excursns foced on implicly gay art and history major while some old masters fetishized the male body barely d ways, the ia of an openly queer artist exprsg his sir om a queer perspective was only born the last century.

Ined, cricism of works like Cadm’s durg an era which homosexualy was still forbidn phed many of the artists to the unrground, om where they’re still beg unearthed today. (It’s perhaps not cintal that Alan Hollghurst’s latt novel, “The Sparsholt Affair, ” a gay retellg of Bra the 20th century, clus a 1940s-era artist tryg to pursue a classmate at Oxford by drawg his figure.

) Frato, “Tangere” 2016, lored pencil on paper, urty of the artist and Antoe Levi, Paris; Jordan Mejias, “Dare Me, ” 2017, monochromatic waterlor on paper, om the book “Of Art and Men” (Photograph: Hans-Ge Pospischil) © Jordan MejiasIN THE YEARS after Cadm, other gay perspectiv on the male body found their way to visual culture, though they’ve typilly been nsired taboo or hypersexual. And spe the “queer enlightenment” of the 1970s and ’80s, when Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayo and others brought man-on-man sex to the mm, there rema few celebratory imag of openly gay men Wtern visual art. Williams’s afternoon ssn wh MacConnell, fact, is part of a recent revival of male figure drawg among ntemporary gay artists — cludg Kou Shou, Mart Bedolla and Stephen McDermott — who all specialize stripped-down reprentatns of largely young whe men.

GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS

MacConnell and Williams met 2016 at the artist Mark Beard’s drawg salon, which now attracts a rotatg st of about 30 gay artists. The nus “give gay people their history, ” Beard says. Outled his signature blue pen, ’s a tribute to the sorts of mundane gay moments that are rarely celebrated art or popular culture.

GAY LIFE DRAWGS

Gay figure artists are followg the homoerotic tradn tablished by Mizer, Fland and the artist Tom Bianchi, whose photographic nus have seen a renaissance after he published “Fire Island P, Polaroids 1975-1983” 2013. ” In “On Send Thought” (2016), the ster’s mcular curv suggt early Roman statuary while ializg gayns the tradn of Cadm’s fabulist etchg “Y. In this, Frato and the other ntemporary gay figure artists share a philosophy, spe their different athetics: They’re all mted to reflectg the mostly unseen terr liv of the men they admire, and to celebratg a diverse set of subjects who, taken together, stand opposn to a nonil history of art that has long ignored an openly gay view of the male body.

PLEASE DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THESE DRAWINGS IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE OFFENDED BY IMAGES OF HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY.

But always he had a secret sile illtratg stori Amerin gay magaz. Many of them posss a distctly homoerotic flavour and mt have given great pleasure to many young stunts durg their studi. Alexanr Gay Artadm2021-06-09T20:31:18+01:00.

GAYS DRAWGS

As art holds an sential place the LGBT muny, The Advote striv to she a light on the work of gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr artists who are movg the cultural needle wh the artists spotlight sectn. Disver slishows om gay art opengs across the world wh mediums that range om photographs, to oils, to sculpture, and more. Browse through the artist spotlight and other sectns that celebrate gay culture.

Gay art tak a big place my work. "For years, nobody, except close iends, have seen my gay works. Neverthels last year I prted my first gay lendar wh a circulatn of 30 pi.

"Ivan Bubentv is my psdonym, which appears thanks to the only onle gay magaze Rsia, Kvir, which publish my works. Homosexualy has, for most of history, been a taboo subject. It is only relatively recent tim that the subject of homoeroticism has been able to be addrsed wh any serns at all.

Wh the growg acceptance of sexual diversy has e a rethkg of the role played by homosexualy art history.

Christiany disapproved of all erotic art, but particularly anythg that hted at homosexual attractn. It did not stop the great paters of the Renaissance, many of whom are today acknowledged as gay, om portrayg the sexual allure of famoly, the var versns of St Sebastian’s martyrdom, showg a spicly mcular torso punctured by arrows, achieved inic stat among homosexual admirers who rpond not only to his physil bety, but also to his plight as a tortured, yet steadfast, martyr.

Homosexualy as a label, or a mo of inty, did not appear Europe until the 19th century. ESTIMATE: £18, 000–25, took until the epochal social chang of the 1960s (and specifilly the crimalisatn act of 1967 the UK) for homosexualy to prise self out of the closet, and art acted as both talyst and rerr of the moment.

Mapplethorpe picted the sado-masochistic trop of gay sex, not primarily as attempts to outrage the public, but as ntral, if betifully shot, rerds of homosexual activy. By the time of his ath om an AIDS-related illns 1989, the alarmg spread of the disease had bee a clarn-ll for gay artists, rultg the explicly polil art of Keh Harg and the Gran Fury llective. ESTIMATE: £3, 000–5, the ol gaze of Andy Warhol, meanwhile, the cliched hyper-masculy of gay p-ups was gently ironised: his starkly-l, tightly-cropped Body Builr of 1982 is absurdly out of proportn, an afont to classil ials of manly 21st century has seen a growg acceptance of homosexualy, but only up to a pot.

Artists ntue to challenge those who would ny their right to exprs and mentate on their own sexual orientatn, most recently 2010’s "Hi/Seek: Difference and Dire Amerin Portraure” exhibn at the Smhsonian’s Natnal Portra Gallery Washgton DC, which provoked lls for a ngrsnal review of the Smhsonian’s the subject of homoeroticism ntu to make s prence felt the cultural mastream: wns the Brish Mm’s A Ltle Gay History gui, explicly drawg attentn to objects wh homosexual them the llectn.