Newly Published Portras Document a Century of Gay Men's Relatnships | Smart News | Smhsonian Magaze

Contents:

• THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
• BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! LNCH QUEER PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZE
• THE OBSSIVE PHOTOGRAPHER BEHD AMERI’S FIRST GAY MAGAZE
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE

Four s ago, the photographer Tom Bianchi began pturg the nearly 10, 000 gay men who every summer flocked to their En a specific part of New York’s Fire Island.

Matthew Morroc“This photograph serv as the ver of my photo book, Complic, which tells the story of relatnships wh olr gay men New York om 2010 to 2015. Photograph by Ey Manng“The first gay pri was a rt—not a logo, psule llectn, or rabow Shake Shack l. Photograph by Chris Smh“I remember that some of my earlit self-portras, taken while I was high school and still eply closeted, seemed like the only way that I uld privately exprs and see myself as the gay man that I knew I was.

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.

BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! LNCH QUEER PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZE

Browse through the artist spotlight and other sectns that celebrate gay culture.

Mart told ESSENCE that part of how she began drawg was to pe the homophobia her environment. While we were still reverg om him snatchg our edg at the Brooklyn Mm 2015, Wiley beme the first Black openly gay artist to pat a printial portra wh his regal portrayal of Print Obama 2018. 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.

THE OBSSIVE PHOTOGRAPHER BEHD AMERI’S FIRST GAY MAGAZE

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.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

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.

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.