Followg the succs of the first issue earlier this year, The Ltle Black Gallery has jt announced the publitn of Volume 2 of s stunng fe art photography magaze dited to queer and gay photography, BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Here The Queer Review previews some of the work clud the magaze. Luiz © Xavier Samre.…
Contents:
- WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM
- ‘A FACE IS NOT JT A FACE’: IS IT FALLY TIME FOR THE GAY GAZE OF UNSUNG PORTRAIST GILBERT LEWIS?
- GAY MOSW · CY GUI
WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM
Charl Llie’s passnate half-century of homoerotic art llectg offers a mirror for the history of gay history self * art gay world *
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. 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.
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. “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. 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. 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.
‘A FACE IS NOT JT A FACE’: IS IT FALLY TIME FOR THE GAY GAZE OF UNSUNG PORTRAIST GILBERT LEWIS?
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. Read terviews and profil of ntemporary artists who portray LGBT history, sex, culture, and polics wh their works. Browse through the artist spotlight and other sectns that celebrate gay culture. * art gay world *
Many of their artists and ctomers died, while others refoced their energy on rg for the sick and fightg homophobic fai, apathetic ernment anizatns and rporatns that saw the gay muny as too small a market to make profable to explore new dgs. In 2011, they received a provisnal charter, makg them the first and only gay art mm the world (the Schwul Mm Berl and the San Francis GLBT History Mm preced them, but both foc on history). 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.
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.
GAY MOSW · CY GUI
The dashgly charmg -founr of the Llie-Lohman Mm v si his SoHo apartment—an unbelievable monument to gay creativy and art. " data-reactroot=" * art gay world *
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.
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. Ccially, however, this perd allowed him to experience the nuanc of gay culture around the world, which drastilly changed his worldview.
* art gay world *
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.
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.
Bgraphi and analysis of work by Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr+ intified artists, or works associated wh LGBT+ topics. * art gay world *
” 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.
” 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. ” 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.
Lewis was out-of-step wh the straight art world for beg too gay, but his longg gaze was anachronistic the queer art of the time—lackg the transgrsn and hypersexualy of Robert Mapplethorpe or the clarn antism of David Wojnarowicz and other firebrands the Act Up 1980s.
"Queer Art" beme a powerful polil and celebratory term to scribe the art and experience of gay, lbian+ people. * art gay world *
If the Kapp Kapp show don’t garner Gilbert Lewis art world acceptance, should at least ph him to the greater gay non beyond beg a regnal lumary. He ntued, “A lot of people have said that Gilbert didn’t achieve the succs that he should have bee his subjects were perceived to be gay.