Art & queer culture

Art & queer culture

Catherine Lord, 1949-

Book - 2013

Writing queer culture into art history means redrawing the boundaries of what counts as art, as well as what counts as history. It means searching for cracks in the partition that separates 'high' art from 'low' culture and in the divide between public achievement and private life. Not a book exclusively about artists who identify themselves as gay or lesbian, this volume instead traces the shifting possibilities and constraints of sexual identity that have provided visual artists with a rich creative resource over the last 125 years. The book includes not only pictures made and displayed under the rubric of fine art but also those intended for private, underground or otherwise restricted audiences, including scrapbooks,... amateur artworks, cartoons, bar murals, anonymous photographs, and activist posters, as well as paintings, sculptures, art photographs and video installations. The Survey essay examines the interplay between art and dissident sexualities, while the Works section presents images of over 220 key artworks accompanied by informative captions, and the Documents section provides a generous archive of primary and secondary texts.--From publisher description.

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Subjects
Homosexuality and art.
Homosexuality in art.
Homosexuality in art > Catalogs.
Art, Modern > 20th century > History.
Gays > History.
Gay artists.
Lesbian artists.
Published
London : Phaidon Press 2013.
Language
English
Main Author
Catherine Lord, 1949- (-)
Other Authors
Richard Meyer, 1966- (-)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
412 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm
ISBN
9780714849355
  • Survey. Inverted histories : 1885-1979 / Richard Meyer ; Inside the body politic : 1980-present / Catherine Lord
  • Works. Thresholds (1885-1909) ; Stepping out (1910-29) ; Case studies (1930-49) ; Closet organizers (1950-64) ; Into the streets (1965-79) ; Sex wars (1980-94) ; Queer worlds (1995-present)
  • Documents. Thresholds (1885-1909) ; Stepping out (1910-29) ; Case studies (1930-49) ; Closet organizers (1950-64) ; Into the streets (1965-79) ; Sex wars (1980-94) ; Queer worlds (1995-present).
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this history of queer art since 1880, Meyer and Lord take a broad view of homosexuality "as a site of sexual meaning and symbolic investment under continual negotiation." They draw upon artists and thinkers such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag, Judith Butler, Andy Warhol, and Alice Austen, and others, whose works, the authors suggest, enter an ongoing conversation about the limits of sexual definition. Meyer and Lord's "curatorially promiscuous" strategy includes two comprehensive essays and a wealth of texts by artists, theorists, and activists. Stanford University art historian Meyer (Outlaw Representation) contextualizes the works in terms of composition and historical trend, while Lord-a practicing artist, curator, and U.C.-Irvine professor-highlights the underlying activism and politicization of each work. There is a strong documentary impulse, with photos of protests, riots, and key political moments. The authors recognize that queer art "does not move toward ever more affirmative images of equality and dignity." They also draw on theorist David Halperin's statement that "queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal.... There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers." By including no more than one work by any artist, Lord and Meyer account for a broad array of genderqueer, transgender, and more liminal identities. 180 color and 120 b&w illus. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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