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LET'S NOT ASSIGN GAY ARTISTS TO THE OBUARY CLOSET
All three of Rschenberg’s former lovers appear promently Among Friends, as well as other gay patrts like Cunngham and Cage. Photograph: Jacqu Haillot/CorbisEvery gay man out eventually - even if only happens when he di.
Wrg an obuary may be the first chance to tell the tth about a gay man's life, but sadly this is not always the se. Some newspapers are still fond of phemisg wh the gay ob's famo last words: "He never married. "I ocsnally wre obuari of the gay great and good for The Guardian.
A relative of his phoned the obuari sk and plaed that I'd mentned he was gay. It would have been a strange omissn a profile of someone who'd been the biggt-sellg thor for Gay Men's Prs and had jt died of an Aids-related illns, but she seemgly thought his sexualy should be kept the Stat a rage is currently simmerg over how newspapers have alt wh the ath of the artist Robert Rschenberg. He had relatnships wh Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns, as Jonathan Jon noted his tribute to the artist, and was part of a gang of gay men workg different discipl, but all firg off and spirg each other: John Cage, Merce Cunngham and Johns.
RSCHENBERG WAS GAY? HOW WAS ANYONE TO KNOW?
I always wce when I see terviewers askg an artist: "How do beg gay fluence your work? Robert Hugh lled his Monogram "one of the few great ins of male homosexual love morn culture".
Some crics have argued that his early work revolved around the artist not revealg himself - how uld a gay man Ameri the 1950s? But ignorg Rschenberg's homosexualy seems as daft and offensive as wrg an obuary of Jam Brown and not mentng he was ck over Rschenberg's ngs echoed that followg the ath of San Sontag 2004. Though Sontag had outed herself as bisexual a New Yorker profile 1995, the relatnship wh Leibovz was well-known, and her two most fluential says, Not On Camp and Aids and s Metaphors, evolved om her timacy wh the gay openg le of Not On Camp reads like a mentary on the obuary closet: "Many thgs the world have not been named, and many thgs, even if they have been named, have never been scribed.
” They never acknowledged him as a peer, still ls a was somethg else that set Rschenberg apart: he was gay. )In recent years, crics have eher glossed over the sexualy of both men, or terpreted Rschenberg’s work as a d exprsn of gay sire: “Stuffed cks and bound pillows and fabric sacks that do double duty as stand-s for butt cheeks and scrotums, ” the artist David Spiher wrote an article exriatg New York’s Met for refg to acknowledge Rschenberg’s homosexualy a 2006 show.