Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was known for his realistic depictions humans and his sometimes even “gritty” depictions of life and the body as seen through the eye. During his time as a realist, women’s rights movements in the US and across some of Europe were just getting into their places of mobilization. While many men at …
Featured Artwork: Love That Not Love Date and Location: 1990 in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA) Media: Acrylic paint on carved wood Where can I see this artwork?: Displayed in the past at the New Orleans Old Mint Museum as part of the exhibition, titled: Soul of the South: Selections from the Gitter-Yellen Collection. On display: November …
Greer Lankton was an American Artist based in East Village in New York City. She created and re-purposed dolls as expressions and interpretations of herself, her imagination, friends, and influential celebrities. Lankton, a transgender woman, was born in 1958 and physically transitioned and was subject of a few news articles in this time before college …
Titian (1488-1576) , born in Venice, Italy as Tiziano Vecellio or Tiziano Vecelli was known as the greatest renaissance painter of the Venetian school of art. His works centered on common catholic religious art and classical scenes from Greek and Roman mythology as the aesthetics and lore of ancient Greece and Rome were popularized once more during the Italian …
Featured Artwork: Presentation of the Virgin by Fra Carnevale Date & Location: 1465 in Florence, Italy Media: Tempera and oil paint Significance to Queer Art History: The male couple in the middle reflects “temptation” and modern relationships in Florence with their modern dress and the figure on the left (almost half way up the painting) “chucking” …
Featured Artwork: Peithinos Cup Date and Location: (525-475 BCE) Athens, Greece Significance to Queer Art History: This cup is a kylix vessel, used for male centered social drinking of wine. Most kylix vessels had sexual or humorous depictions of individuals on the inside (a surprise for finishing the drink, if you will) and outsides. This …
Featured Artwork: Entry Fresco to Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep’s Mastaba Date & Location: 2400 BCE in Saqarra, Egypt Significance to Queer Art History: This mastaba is the joint tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. The two men were the chief manicurists and groomers to the king in their time. The nose-to-nose “kiss” pose given to them is intimate …
Featured Artwork: Statue of Harmodius and Aristogeiton (Also known as Tyrannicide Monument) Original artists: Kritios and Nesiotes (477 BCE) in Athens, Greece. The only remaining pictured sculpture is a Greco-Roman copy that can be signified by the figure’s dependence upon faux wooden bases Where can I view this artwork?: Naples National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy Significance …
Featured Artwork: The Sorcerer of Hiva Oa (Marquesan Man in the Red Cape) Date & Location: 1902 in Hiva Oa, an isle in French Polynesia Media: Oil painting Significance to Queer Art History: This painting’s inspiration was drawn from Gauguin’s travels from France to the Polynesian Islands where Gauguin thought the lives and surroundings would …
Demuth was an openly gay artist based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (USA). He is known by most museum-goers as a precisionist architectural watercolorist. Yet, Demuth also painted more homoerotic works of art set in bathhouses and other accepted homosocial environments. Featured Artwork: Dancing Sailors Date & Location: 1918 in Pennsylvania, USA Media: Watercolor and pencil Where can I …
Donatello, born as Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi was a sculptor prominently featured through the Italian Renaissance in Florence, Italy. Donatello was one of the first modern artists to be known as gay in Florence, a city where homosexuality was prominent among artists and patrons alike, albeit, still frowned upon by certain sectors (namely, the church.) …
Featured Artwork: Funerary Relief of Fonteia Helena and Fonteia Eleusis Date & Location: 21-14 BCE (Augustinian Period) Rome, Italy Media: Marble Relief Where can I view this artwork?: This relief currently belongs to the British Museum’s collection Significance to Queer Art History: This sculpture was a commemoration of freedwomen Fonteia Helena and Fonteia Eleusis. The …