Queerg the Catalogue: A Look at Queer, Gay, and Trans Art and Artists | The Metropolan Mm of Art

Contents:

• QUEERG THE CATALOGUE: A LOOK AT QUEER, GAY, AND TRANS ART AND ARTISTS
• WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM
• HOW A SELF-TGHT ART CURATOR BEME A GAY RIGHTS CHAMPN

QUEERG THE CATALOGUE: A LOOK AT QUEER, GAY, AND TRANS ART AND ARTISTS

Bgraphi and analysis of work by Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr+ intified artists, or works associated wh LGBT+ topics. 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. 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.

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

Generally, homoerotic works “were ma for iends, ” Llie said, and they’ve only more recently been g to the market. 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.

After his two-year stt was up, Llie enrolled the Sorbonne Paris before travelg throughout Europe, livg Venice and Amsterdam, known as the gay pal of post-war Europe. Tipped off by a iend, Llie “found a ltle old ticky-tacky shop, ” as he relled, that trafficked the sale of homoerotic art. Ccially, however, this perd allowed him to experience the nuanc of gay culture around the world, which drastilly changed his worldview.

He relled gog to a ernment-sponsored gay bar Amsterdam: “The first thg you saw when you walked was this huge, long bar wh a gigantic picture of Queen Juliana sg out at her gay subjects. 1960, “I plunged to the gay rights movement stantaneoly bee so much bullsh was gog on this untry, ” he said.

HOW A SELF-TGHT ART CURATOR BEME A GAY RIGHTS CHAMPN

While SoHo is now one of the most chichi neighborhoods New York, was then, as Llie remd me, sentially an dtrial wasteland where only few artists—and fewer gay people—igned to live. ” The Stonewall rts on June 28, 1969—an early-hours prott agast a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay club Greenwich Village—were a major turng pot. The tle is a le om a Constante Cavafy poem, and Llie uldn’t help but wax poetic about Cavafy, who “wrote magnificent, rhapsodic gay poetry.

Photo by Max Burkhalter for flourishg of gay life the 1970s soon gave way to the AIDS epimic of the ’80s. ” Still, was durg this , 1987, that Llie and Lohman created their nonprof foundatn, which was accreded as a mm after the peak of the AIDS crisis, Mayor Rudy Giuliani—“a great, honorable Catholic, ” Llie uldn’t help but jibe—“fally managed to kill public gay life New York.

” He hop that his llectn, and the mm, will te a generatn that he perceiv to be largely uniated wh gay history.

) He remembered seeg the 2005 film Brokeback Mounta—then an unual mastream pictn of gay romance— theaters. The works were so divorced om their homoerotic subtext that even Queen Victoria and Alexanr Graham Bell owned pi. ” Von Gloen offers even further proof that gay art is by no means a new phenomenon, jt one that has only recently been permted to see the light.

Perhaps one of the first nam that to md when mentng artists and gay inty is Robert Mapplethorpe. A celebrated photographer known for his often divisive subject matter, his work ranged om portras of social, statuque figur of nus, and scen om unrground BDSM gay scen New York. Constantly at the foreont of ntroversy, his work has sparked public bate about censorship and art fundg, as well as the objectifitn of black men the gay muny for his solo exhibn Black Mal and subsequent book The Black Book.

Regardls of the problematic nature of certa aspects of his work, Mapplethorpe was a semal figure the gay muny and the arts om the 1970’s until his ath 1989. Proliferatg ias of sexual inty and gag posive awarens for the stggl of beg gay, Harg has been promently noted as an fluential figure queer muni. She worked llaboratn wh several groups cludg the UK Lbian & Gay Immigratn Group for her 2014 performance The World is Floodg at Tate Morn.

As a gay-intifyg man livg wh HIV, he has addrsed the embodiment of the experienc through his art, cludg his sign of the AIDS memorial for the cy of Munich, and his portras and profil of Rsia’s queer muny after his participatn St.

Regardls of the imag of vlence, the portrayal of men alludg to homoerotic quali and his e of historilly opprsed bodi reference to classic European athetics has propelled him to the upper echelon of ntemporary paters. 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. In an UK Gay News op-ed piece, Baker wrote: “In my view the rabow flag is unfished, as the movement reprents, an arc that begs well before me, s breadth far broar than all of our experienc put together, reachg the fartht rners of the world wh a msage of solidary and a bean of hope for those who follow our footsteps. Gay prisoners Nazi ncentratn mps were forced to wear the pk triangle to show that they were homosexuals, which meant that they often received worse treatment and as a rult were ls likely to survive the mps.

Though not everyone embrac the pk triangle as a posive symbol of gay pri, the triangle and verted triangle have gone through untls variatns and rema popular. Like the rabow flag, the pk triangle is now an image found on pri badg, stickers, and t-shirts, and is a mon symbol ed to advertise gay-iendly events and activi.

In an era before the femist and gay liberatn movements, the sensatnalized imag on the books’ vers were often the only way for women to read about lbianism. Gay male pulp fictn, while ls popular than lbian pulp novels, enjoyed a large followg that peaked the early 1950s. Like other sleazy publitns of the 50s and 60s, gay pulp fictn vers showed a fantasy world full of absurd clichés, sctive pos, and mcular bare chts.

While today pulp novels may seem lghably over-the-top, they are nohels important pop culture reprentatns of gays and lbians art. Keh Harg was a talented pop artist who dited his reer to brgg gay art and AIDS awarens to the mass. His lorful, provotive, and socially-nsc imag form an important part of the history of gay symbolism.