LaQuann Dawson Discs Erotic Self-Portras and New Black, Gay Art Anthology

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The imag are often ma rponse to and nversatn wh historil artworks and referenc such as the vanas motif, relig patgs, and inic gay artists who shaped my unrstandg of queer self-reprentatn, like Pedro Lemebel, David Wojnarowicz, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Fortunately, alternative events to the official gay Pri are now available: ralli, march, and parti that rever the urgency, ant, and cril spir that our social polics need and serve.

Artwork ma by gay artists has historilly been st asi as such, flagged wh labels like “gay art” or “Aids art” or “polil art” that serve no discernible purpose other than to tell the viewer that the person who ma is, or was, gay (and often angry). Wojnarowicz, the wrer, pater, photographer, poet, prtmaker and activist, was gay himself, and his work addrsed same-sex sire, the Aids crisis, the persecutn of sexual mori and the Reagan admistratn’s refal to acknowledge their existence. Slowly dyg beyond our grasp” now Ameri, or at least s art world tablishment, is ready, a quarter-century after his ath, to acknowledge Wojnarowicz’s rightful place the non of ntemporary art, not jt “gay art”.