OK, let’s start with a simple supposition. Throughout history humans demonstrated that they somehow care how future generations will remember them. They build triumphal arches to celebrate victories, re-written history to their advantage, etc.
We know of men having relationships (sexual and/or emotional) with other men through the art(ifacts) we discovered, texts that were preserved.
Some fish practice shoaling and schooling because power is in numbers (as the men gathering on stadiums). When gays were schooling to have their presence recognized by law, their Art was in the struggle and victory. Stonewall is such a work of art, if you like.
When most people feel safe, the shoaling breaks off and the members start to care less or not at all about the others like them. The fight for a personal Triumphal Arch starts at the Apple store.
I attach here 3 drawings.
One is a portrait of a man drawn by a queer man.
The second is a homoerotic scene, safe for work, that was drawn by a queer man but could have been drawn by a straight woman (so many women write tons of m/m literature where the sexual act between the men is described as if the writer knew the feeling from her own experience. And people buy that).
The third is a drawing of a homo-sexual act (probably still safe for work, no genitals exposed, everything is suggested). It could have been drawn by anyone with some skill. It was drawn by a queer man. All 3 drawings are made by me, by it’s not about me, if you get the drift ;-)
My question is: which one is Gay Art? Well, Art cannot be gay but you know what I mean, don’t you?). Which one you think would speak about you or the life and existence of gays in this particular day and age? When one sees a straight actor interpreting a gay character on screen, several voices rise up in anger.
Since this group is about visual art, let’s start here, if you like. In 500 years someone digs up an artifact that speaks about your life and times. Reminder, before mid 1800s the word homosexual did not exist. Gays before that, in various cultures, were seen in different ways. Homophobes always existed, we’re …humans:-(
