Homosexuality in Art

James Smalls

Description

This book is not a panegyric of homosexuality. It is a scientific study led by Professor James Smalls who teaches art history in the prestigious University of Maryland, Baltimore. Abandoning all classical clichés and sociological approaches, the author highlights the sensibility particular to homosexuals. This book examines the process of creation and allows one to comprehend the contribution of homosexuality to the evolution of emotional perception. In a time when all barriers have been overcome, this analysis offers a new understanding of our civilisation’s masterpieces.

Sujets

• Gay
• Homosexualidad
• Homosexuality
• Gay (disambiguation)
• Demographics
• Creation
• Homosexualité
• Society

Informations

• Publié par: Parkstone International
• Date de parution: 04 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783107278
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 17 Mo

Extrait

Publishing Director: Jean-Paul Manzo
Text: James Smalls Design: Cédric Pontes Layout: Stéphanie Angoh

Layout:
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© Centro Elisarion, ill. 1 , 2
© Smithsonian American Art Museum, ill. 1 , 2 , 3
© Herbert List/Magnum photo, ill. 1 , 2
© Richmond Barthé, courtesy Childs Gallery, ill.
© Jeanne-Mammen-Gesellschaft e.V., ill.
© George Platt Lynes, II, ill. 1 , 2 , 3
© The Estate of Francis Bacon/ARS, ill. 1 , 2
© Under international copyright by The Tom of Finland Foundation, ill. 1 , 2
© Andy Warhol Foundation/ARS, ill.
© Pierre Molinier, courtesy Galerie A L ’ Enseigne des Oudin, Paris/ADAGP/ARS, ill. 1 , 2
© Harmony Hammond, ill. 1 , 2
© Robert Mapplethorpe/Michael Van Horne, ill. 1 , 2
© Pierre et Gilles. courtesy Jerome de Noirmont, Paris, ill. 1 , 2
© David Wojnarowicz/P.P.O.W., New York, ill.
© George and Helen Segal Foundation/VAGA, ill.
© Catherine Opie. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles, ill.
© Mardsen Hartley, Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, ill.
© Ajamu, ill. 1 , 2
© Rotimi Fani Kayode/Autograph, Association of Black Photographers, ill. 1 , 2
© Sunil Gupta, ill.
© Nan Goldin, ill. 1 , 2
© Tee Corinne, ill.
© ARS, ill. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

© Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA
© Parkstone Press International, New York, USA
Image-Bar www.image-bar.com
ISBN : 978-1-78310-727-8

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted wit hout the permission of the copy right holder, throughout the world.
Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers. Despite intensive research, it has not always been posible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case we would appreciate notification.
James Smalls



Homosexuality in Art

Contents


Introduction
Homosexuality in Western Antiquity (from Ancient Greece to the Roman Empire)
Comrades in Arms and the Body Beautiful
The Hellenistic Period: The Age of Dionysos
Greek Influence Abroad
The Disenchantments of Sappho
Rome from Republic to Empire
Pompeii
Homosexuality in the Middle Ages
The Unspeakable Vice
Fire and Brimstone
Sacred Pairings in the Byzantine World
The Romanesque Period (1000–1200)
Intolerance and Repression (1200–1400)
David and Jonathan
Moralizing Manuscripts
Descent into the Inferno
The Late Middle Ages
Female Homosexuality in the Middle Ages
Homosexuality in the Italian Renaissance
Renaissance Neoplatonism
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564)
Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571)
The Northern Renaissance
The Later Italian Renaissance
The Baroque Period
Female Homosexuality in the Renaissance
Homosexuality in the Art of The Non-Western World (Asia and Islam)
India
China
Japan
Islam
1700–1900: Towards A Homosexual Identity
Libertines and libertinism
Neoclassicism and Romanticism
Realism
Symbolism and the Leap of Imagination
From Aestheticism to Sexology
Homosexuality in the Art of Modernism and Postmodernism (1900–2000)
I. From Modernism to Stonewall (1900–1969)
Sappho on the Left B a nk
II. From Stonewall to Postmodernism (post-1969)
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
List of illustrations
1. Greek painting representing a couple,
480 BC. Museum of Paestum, Italy


Introduction


Art and homosexuality may seem like a strange combination, but both phenomena have been part of human history from the beginning of time, or at least from the beginning of recorded civilization. Bringing together two large concepts— art and homosexuality is, nevertheless, difficult and challenging. Both categories raise a host of conceptual problems and pose a series of unresolved nagging questions.
The primary question, “What is art and what purpose does it serve?”, has preoccupied humankind for centuries and has yet to find a definitive answer. There exists as many views and definitions about what art is (and is not) and its significance as there are individuals in the world. In the context of Homosexuality in Art , I am using the term “art” in a broad sense as human creation and communication within a visual field. Although the majority of the images here were produced in traditional media such as painting, sculpture, graphics, and photography, art would also include images and forms of production associated with, for example, popular culture, advertising, film, performance, conceptualism, computer-generated imagery, etc. Ultimately, it is up to the reader of this book to decide what to accept or reject as art.
Unlike “ art, ” the other term in this book ’ s title, “ homosexuality, ” can be defined more specifically. Homosexuality and its emotional aspects have existed in all cultures and in all time periods long before the invention of the term. It is and always has been one aspect of the very complex domain of human sexuality. The way homosexual love and sensibilities are visually expressed is often a reflection of the status of homosexuals themselves within their particular cultures. These images are an indication of either the degree of tolerance in those societies, or the sign of an increasingly restrictive prejudice fostered by traditions and religion.
Before 1869, the words “homosexuality” and “heterosexuality” did not exist. The former was coined and first put into use by the German–Hungarian writer and translator Karl Maria Kertbeny (1824–1882). He also invented the latter term in 1880. Kertbeny’s purpose for using the word “homosexuality” was in response to an article of the Prussian penal code that criminalized sexual relations between men. Kertbeny wanted the article omitted, but was unsuccessful. The code became part of Prussian law in 1871 and was upheld and then strengthened by the Nazis in 1935, and retained by West Germany until 1969 (Haggerty, 451). Kertbeny had his own specific views on human sexuality. Although there may have never existed a coherent theory of homosexuality for him, he did divide homosexuals into specific categories: those who are “active,” “passive,” and “Platonists” or those who love the company of their own sex without wanting to have sex with them. The designation “homosexuality,” then, started out as a term of sympathy and political activism to change a repressive law. However, over the years the word evolved into a concept that came to describe an individual’s sexual preference. The word and its evolving concept took some time to enter into European languages and thought patterns.
In the 1880s, Kertbeny’s catchy new term attracted the attention of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, a noted sexologist who used the word in his vastly popular 1886–87 Psychopathia Sexualis , a massive encyclopedia of sexual deviance. It was through this and subsequent work by noted sexologists of the late nineteenth century that the term “homosexuality” acquired its medical and clinical connotations. Sexology refers to the study of human sexual behavior before the codifications of modern psychology and psychoanalysis generated by the thoughts and writings of Sigmund Freud. (see Gregory W Bredbeck, “Sexology,” in Haggerty, 794) It was not until the 1950s that “homosexuality” entered popular English and American usage, largely as a result of the Kinsey reports of 1948. Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956) was an American sex researcher whose scientific data on human sexuality challenged the prevailing notion that homosexuality was a mental illness.
As a concept, “homosexuality” encompasses a variety of conflicting ideas about gender and same-sex sexual attraction. Its broad range of possible meanings is what makes it such an irresistible, powerful, and ambiguous term nowadays. In its modern sense, “homosexuality is at once a psychological condition, an erotic desire, and a sexual practice.” (David Halperin, “Homosexuality,” in Haggerty, 452) All three senses can and are expressed in artistic or aestheticized form. Homosexuality or, to employ a term of more recent invention, the “homoerotic,” can be understood as an actual or potential element in everyone’s experience, whatever the sexual orientation of the individual. The homosexual and the homoerotic frequently overlap but are not necessarily the same. Many of the images in this book might be classified as homoerotic rather than homosexual. “Homosexual” and “homoerotic” differ only in the root meanings of the terms “sexual” and “erotic.” Whereas “sexual” encompasses the physical act of sex, “erotic” is a concept that incorporates a range of ideas and feelings around same-sex wants, needs, and desires. It does not always culminate in the sexual act. The homoerotic, unlike the homosexual, legitimates erotic desire between members of the same sex by placing that sentiment in a context which rationalizes it—such as classicism, military battle, athletic activities, etc). Thus, in many situations the homoerotic is veiled and perceived as nontransgressive behavior. Whereas all homosexuals experience homoerotic desire, not all who experience and, indeed, appreciate homoerotic desire are necessarily homosexuals. The homoerotic can sometimes be a frightening prospect for some heterosexuals to such a degree that it sometimes incites virulent homophobic responses. The “homoerotic” is also linked to the more recent idea of the “homosocial.” Male homosociality refers to all-male groups or environments and is a means by which men construct their identities and consolidate their privilege and social power as males usually through and at the expense of women (see Eve Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire , New York, Columbia University Press, 1985). Indeed, female homosociality also exists, but the dynamics of it in relation to patriarchal culture are quite different.
Although male and female homo