20 Imag From the Naked Age of Erotic Gay Theater

Contents:

• THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
• ARE GAY MEN ARTISTIC? A REVIEW OF THE LERATURE
• GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS
• "GAY"/ FE ART PRTS ▼
• I WAS PART OF 303 CREATIVE'S CASE. I BACK GAY MARRIAGE—BUT SCOTUS IS RIGHT

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.

ARE GAY MEN ARTISTIC? A REVIEW OF THE LERATURE

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 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.

GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS

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. The enigmatic actor, art llector, gay activist, globetrotter, and doyenne of the SoHo scene has, along wh his late partner J. Together, the pair found the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art—the first stutn of s kd—which is down the block, on Wooster, unassumg Llie happened to poke his head out to the hallway to terme the e of the ck; before he uld shut the door, a group om the art magaze I worked for had charged their way through.

This somewhat jad crew of crics was ankly awed to fd every available surface the dky, crimson Prce Street loft absolutely vered—let me repeat: vered—wh explicly homoerotic art all styl and media, cludg var se-specific murals. At the start of his and Lohman’s llectg days, more than 60 years ago, “gay imagery was unfortunately the hands of pornographers exclively, ” Llie lamented. Photo by Max Burkhalter for wi-rangg llectn gently illtrat the changg landspe of public gay life and the civil rights advanc crementally gaed sce he began discreetly buyg homoerotic art the 1950s.

"GAY"/ FE ART PRTS ▼

It is only the last three s that homosexualy has gaed legal protectns the Uned Stat.

When the llectn began to take shape, sodomy was outlawed ( still is several stat), and gays uld be refed service at bars and other there were numerable challeng to gog about buildg such a libido, Uranian llectn. Much like homosexualy self, gay art was hidn away—tucked the back rooms of galleri, wh entry granted by s and vert nods passed between figur who had to read the other as part of their circle.

I WAS PART OF 303 CREATIVE'S CASE. I BACK GAY MARRIAGE—BUT SCOTUS IS RIGHT

Generally, homoerotic works “were ma for iends, ” Llie said, and they’ve only more recently been g to the market. He ced the Amerin artist Pl Cadm, “a very charmg man” he knew through gay circl Cann. Born the remote town of Deadwood, South Dakota, 1933, Llie had saved enough money by the time he was 17 to take a b to Los Angel, where he enuntered his first gay muny.