"Jt Say Gay" art exhibn | 600 Central Ave, Sarasota, FL | May 12, 2022

Contents:

• WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM
• NOT 'GAY ART,' BUT 'GOOD ART BY GAY ARTISTS': CULTURAL COUNCIL OPENS SHOW LAKE WORTH BEACH
• THE BIG GAY ART SHOW
• GAY BAR VS ART GALLERY: SHOULD QUEER EXHIBNS BE RECLAIMED BY LGBT+ VENU?
• "JT SAY GAY" ART EXHIBN

WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM

Barbara Kat'Only Tony': Portras by Gilbert LewisPennsylvania Amy of Fe Arts, PhilalphiaPhilalphia artist Gilbert Lewis is a longstandg fixture of the cy’s art muny, but his sensive portraure work has th far been unrexposed at lol mms, spe s importance the natnal lexin of gay male art.

The "Queer Threads" exhibn, which ran early 2014, examed the diversy of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and queer experienc. Stanley Stellar / Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art. From the stage of the Founrs’ Day celebratn of the Llie + Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, the octogenarian art llector addrsed the r crowd there to celebrate the upg expansn of the mm he tablished– a major tone that will double size the world’s first and only mm dited to gay art.

But before discsg the future, Llie wanted to talk about the origs of his llectn of homoerotic work. The rt, ed, was history: thoands of years of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history, ignored and relegated to circumscribed footnot, if that. Or as the print of the mm’s board of directors, art historian Jonathan David Katz, puts , Llie “enpsulat the cultural tennci” of more than half a century of gay historic activism.

NOT 'GAY ART,' BUT 'GOOD ART BY GAY ARTISTS': CULTURAL COUNCIL OPENS SHOW LAKE WORTH BEACH

As did for many men of the time, Europe troduced Llie to a more open visn of gay life. Growg up a small town durg the Deprsn, Llie’s exposure to gayns as an inty was limed to what he uld glean om the encyclopedia. Aware of his own sexual sir om an early age, he left for Los Angel as soon as he uld, where he easily fell wh s sub rosa gay muny.

But was Europe that ma him realize there was such a thg as “gay history” – and that much of that history was only prerved art. “We ma the disvery early on that we'd both been discreet llectors of gay imagery, ” Llie says.

THE BIG GAY ART SHOW

His rourc, bed wh Llie’s nnectns to the theater and art worlds, enabled them to amass a trove of gay art.

But what, exactly, mak art gay?

GAY BAR VS ART GALLERY: SHOULD QUEER EXHIBNS BE RECLAIMED BY LGBT+ VENU?

“Charl [Llie] has always been fundamentally foced on the homoerotic, which he unrstands as the most dissint form of art makg, ” says Katz, “bee by fn has been historilly exclud. Do that leave “gay art” the same nebulo I-know--when-I-see- tegory as pornography or obsceny? In his ey, what mak a piece of art “gay” is the perspective and tentn of the artist.

"JT SAY GAY" ART EXHIBN

Neverthels, the time durg which Llie was first llectg, the vast majory of gay work was ma by gay artists. Many were gay, but kept that si of their art hidn. As he tells , three thgs happened the summer of 1969: Woodstock, the Stonewall Rebelln, and his first annual Exhibn of Homoerotic Art, which he held his Soho stud.

Their hope was to sell explicly gay work (as opposed to work by gay artists tryg to mask their sexualy or create art for a straight dience), orr to prove “wasn’t potls to make. After the third such Exhibn 1972, they opened their first official gay art venture, The Llie Lohman Gallery on Broome Street.

There, they ntued to show homoerotic art (one early show troduced New York to the leather daddy athetic of Tom of Fland), but also branched out to clu work by women (such as Marn Pto’s solo exhib “Man as a Sex Object”), and ls openly erotic work. But the ial foc on gay men, and particular, whe gay men, ntued the unfortunate tradn of excludg women and people of lor om the historil rerd. But the early ’80s would see the bs – and nearly the entirety of gay life Ameri – subsumed by the AIDS crisis.