Made in California: art, image, and identity, 1900-2000, edited by Stephanie Barron, Sheri Bernstein, and Ilene Susan Fort, with essays by Stephanie Barron, Sheri Bernstein, Michael Dear, Howard N. Fox, and Richard Rodriguez is one of those sprawling, entertainingly written books which promises more than it can possibly deliver. To the author’s benefit, “homosexuals” is an index category and the text deals passingly with gay male art, especially mid-century body imagery. In association with gay male culture, David Hockney is listed, as is fashion designer Rudi Gernreich -- a co-founder of the Mattachine Society. Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown are mentioned, but not as lovers.
Lari Pittman (b. 1952) is singled out by essayist Howard N. Fox as “one of the foremost American painters to explore issues relating to a gay lifestyle and sexual identity. His ‘Spiritual and needy’ is from a series that reflects his discontent with gay promiscuity, with straight responses to the AIDS crisis, and with what he views as a general profligacy and excessiveness in aspects of American life” (p. 256). “Gay” however is not an index category. If I did not already know Pittman was queer, I might easily have missed this collapsing of the categories of “gay” and “disease” accented by the juxtaposition of Albert J. Winn’s photo of an AIDS awareness march.
No notice is taken, in Made in California, of the L.A. Women’s building or its groundbreaking “GALAS: the Great American Lesbian Art Show.” Arlene Raven is a “feminist art historian.” Judith Baca is noted only as a muralist and director of SPARC (the Social and Public Arts Resource Center). Ester Hernandez only exists as an artist with ecological concerns, ignoring her major imagery on the covers of Chicana lesbians (first edition) and The sexuality of latinas. Laura Aguilar is cited as “a timeless earth mother” (p. 251), but not for her politically charged self-portrait tied into a Mexican and an American flag, her widely published “Latina lesbians” photographic series, or inclusion of lesbian and gay couples in her series of paired clothed and unclothed portraits. Lesbians, in fact, are represented solely by Catherine Opie’s 1993 self-portrait which is described as an “act of scarification” and about which it is noted that she was “practicing sadomasochistic at the time” (p. 252). I think, in general, this book is an improvement over being ignored altogether, but I’m not sure. $34.95 in US, £22.00 in UK, paperback, ISBN 0-520-22765-4; $65.00 in US, £40.00 in UK ISBN 0-520-22764-6. U. of California Press.
M/E/A/N/I/N/G: an anthology of artists’ writings, theory, and criticism, edited by Susan Bee and Mira Schor, includes a brief statement about the AIDS “Elegies” by Brooklyn-based artist Anthony Viti and a somewhat longer autobiographical piece by lesbian artist Nicola Tyson. Lesbian critic Laura Cottingham contributed “just a sketch of what a feminist art, or feminism, could or ever did mean before or after whatever is implied by the present.” Artist Patricia Cronin became an interviewer in “A conversation on lesbian subjectivity and painting with Deborah Kass.” Two gay male artists (Viti and Ellsworth Kelly) are mentioned along with five others (Bob Gober, Nayland Blake, Ross Bleckner, Donald Moffet, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres) with the implication, not clarified in the text, that they are gay. The indexing includes not only “homosexuality,” but also “gay artists” and “lesbian artists.” The intellectual quality, especially of the Cottingham and Cronin/Kass pieces, is very satisfying. There is no doubt in my mind this is an improvement over previous anthologies. $22.95 paperback, ISBN 0-8223-2566-7; $69.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-8223-2534-9, Duke.
Robert Indiana: figures of speech by Susan Elizabeth Ryan is rich in pictures and information. Indiana (b. 1923) came to public attention during the Pop-inflected 1960s with his LOVE logo, reproduced in a variety of media. Through relating Indiana’s biography and personal iconography, Ryan unwraps layers of meaning, including homosexual content. Of special interest is information about Indiana’s involvement with Ellsworth Kelly. $45.00 hard cover, ISBN: 0-300-07957-5, Yale University Press.
Ruth Bernhard: between art & life by Margaretta K. Mitchell is a biography of the photographer whose work delineates the female nude in the last half of the twentieth century. Bernhard (b. 1905), brilliant and bisexual, discusses her relationship with photographer Edward Weston, her women lovers, and the much younger African American man who was her intimate companion in her later years. $29.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-8118-2191-9, Chronicle Books.
John Singer Sargent: the sensualist by Trevor Fairbrother includes a revealing selection of drawings and male nudes. The author stops just short of saying that Sargent (1856-1925) was gay, but makes an excellent case for the likelihood that he was. $39.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-300-08744-6, Yale in association with the Seattle Art Museum.
The woman behind the lens: the life and work of Frances Benjamin Johnson, 1864-1952, by Bettina Berch is a photo-rich biography of an early woman photographer and photojournalist. Berch confirms that Johnson had at least one long-term relationship with a woman, photographer Mattie Edwards Hewitt, with whom she shared a studio in New York City. Johnson also produced one of the early images of writer Natalie Clifford Barney. $24.95 paperback, ISBN 0-8139-2009-4, U. Press of Virginia.
George Platt Lynes by David Leddick, with text in English, French, and German, is a compilation of photographs with images divided by subject: portraits, dancers, nudes, fashion, and mythology. Lynes (1907-1955) was, for many years, part of the NYC gay male art establishment. Of special interest are the portraits of Marsden Hartley (with a younger man out of focus in the background), E.M. Forster (with a roll of paper almost crumpled in his hand), Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, Gertrude Stein, and Pavel Tchelitchev (with his painting of Lynes visible behind him). $39.99 hardcover, ISBN 3-8228-6403-X, Taschen.
Judy Francesconi: visual sonnets is an oversize book of black and white and sepia-toned photographs of female nudes posing individually, embracing in couples, or forming patterns (such as a heart) in groups. Francesconi (b. 1957) produces technically accomplished, tastefully done images with neutral backgrounds, dramatic lighting and, in a few, s/m accessories. Gay men have many similar books, but lesbians have almost none. $59.95 paperback, ISBN 0-9629959-2-4, Shake-It-Up Productions, dist. by Bookpeople, Koen, and Ingram.
Karlheinz Weinberger by Karlheinz Weinberger, Andreas Zust Verlag, Ulrich Binder (Editor), Thomas Meyer and Martin Jaeggi features Weinberger (b. 1921), a self-taught Swiss photographer, who published in Der Kreis/The circle, an international gay magazine which also published the work of George Platt Lynes and Herbert List until it folded in 1967. Later he focused on (heterosexual) rebel youth and, later still, on biker culture. The eroticized “fitness” photos of the 1950s are echoed in Weinberger’s series on creative crotch closures on jeans worn by the young rebels a decade later. $49.95 hardcover, ISBN 3905328216, Scalo.
I missed Germaine Krull, photographer of modernity by Kim Sichel when it came out last year. Krull (1897-1985) had many male lovers and one long affair with a woman. Around 1924, Krull produced a series of nine images of women being sexual with one another. $65.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-262-19401-5, The MIT Press.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: the first decade, a catalog, includes the following artists of interest to QCA members: Paul Cadmus (1904-1999), Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), Morris Graves (b. 1910), Nancy Grossman (b. 1940), Alfonso Ossorio (1916-1999), Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997), Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957), and Mark Tobey (1890-1976). $30.00 hardcover, ISBN 1-930416-04-0. Order directly from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 24 West 57th St., NYC 10019, main@michaelrosenfeldglry.com. Numerous individual artist catalogs are also published by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery including publications on all of the above. Note especially Nancy Grossman, loud whispers: four decades of assemblage, collage & sculpture. $25, ISBN 1-930416-07-5.
Defining eye: women photographers of the 20th century, selections from the Helen Kornblum collection, text by Olivia Lahs-Gonzales and Lucy Lippard, introduction by Martha A. Sandweiss, is a collection of images by eighty-one photographers including the openly lesbian Catherine Opie and several closet cases. $35.00 paperback, ISBN 0-89178-047-5, The Saint Louis Art Museum, dist. by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.
Continuous replay: the photographs of Arnie Zane, edited by Jonathan Green, introduction by Bill T. Jones, essays by Jonathan Green, Susan Leigh Foster, and Christine Pichini; commentary by Bill Bissell, Bill T. Jones, Robert Longo, Philip Sykas, and Lois Welk. Choreographer Arnie Zane (1948-1988) began seriously making photographs in 1971 with special emphasis on the body: his own, friends and lovers, other dancers. The aesthetic is odd, quirky, questioning. This book and the accompanying show include erotic imagery. $35.00 paperback, ISBN 0-262-57127-7, The MIT Press.
NEW IN PAPER. Bachelors by Rosalind Krauss is an intellectually complicated discussion of the lives and work of nine women artists including sculptor Louise Bourgeois, painter Dora Maar, photographer Cindy Sherman, and one of my personal favorites, photographer Claude Cahun. US $17.95 paperback, £10.95, ISBN 0-262-61165-1, The MIT Press.
Beautiful necessity: the art and meaning of women’s altars by Kay Turner features several lesbian artists including Nancy Azara, Betsy Damon, Christina Biaggi, Nancy Fried, Pat Gargaetas, Hawk Madrone, Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry, and Jean Mountaingrove. $19.95 paperback, ISBN 0-500-28150-5, Thames & Hudson.
Pregnant pictures by Sandra Matthews and Laura Wexler discusses changes in the imagery and underlying meanings associated with childbearing. Included is lesbian mothering (photograph by Cathy Cade). $35.00 paperback, ISBN 0-415-92120-1, Routledge.
Considering that half of the artists in it are gay or bisexual, there is less queer content than one might expect in In the power of painting: Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Ross Bleckner, a selection from the Daros collection, edited by Peter Fischer. Bleckner (b. 1949) is described as gay, a factor connected to his interest in AIDS issues (disease again). Warhol isn’t described as gay (does one need to?) but is represented by, among other images, his “Elvis (4 times)” from 1963 with the multiple spread legs and pointed gun. $29.95 hardcover, ISBN 3-908247-27-6, Scalo.
The brothers of New Essex: Afro erotic adventures by Belasco, a book of comic art by a younger L.A. animation director, is billed as “the first Afro-centric graphic novel for gay men.” It includes lots of sex (perhaps this is an understatement) and a visually interesting array of characters. Belasco has been featured in Best gay erotica, Meatmen, GBM, and Whazzup! magazine. $24.95 in U.S., $38.95 in Canada, hardcover, ISBN 1-57344-111-2, Cleis.
Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo: places of their own by Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall discusses Canadian Emily Carr (1871-1945), U.S.-born Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), and Mexican Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Unfortunately, only Kahlo’s bisexuality is discussed, not O'Keeffe’s, nor the lesbian possibilities in Carr’s. $45.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-300-07958-3, Yale.
BACK IN PRINT. Nan Goldin, the other side is a collection of (bisexual?) Goldin’s (b. 1953) color photographs of drag queens. Goldin popularized a casual, semi-narrative, semi-autobiographical approach to photographing people who are not frequently pictured in art images. The pictures are taken at night; there is an aura of drugs, of forbidden encounters, odd camera angles which project a very urban, very insider kind of excitement. $29.95 paperback, ISBN 3-908247-34-9, Scalo.
I haven’t seen the following, but hope to by next issue.
• Derek Jarman: a biography by Jarman’s literary agent, Tony Peake, focuses on the filmmaker and writer (1941-1994). According to Ray Anne Lockard, the book includes a meticulous catalog of Jarman’s works. $40.00 hardcover, ISBN 1585670669, Overlook Press.
• Also noted by Ray Anne is Art nouveau and the erotic by Ghislaine Wood, a slender publication that consists chiefly of illustrations and includes a brief chapter entitled “Homoeroticism and androgyny.” $18.95 hardcover, ISBN: 0810942135, Abrams.
• Rotimi Fani-Kayode & Alex Hirst edited by Mark Sealy. $50.00, hardcover, ISBN 2909571173, Editions Revue Noire, www.revuenoire.com.
• Don we now our gay apparel: gay men’s dress in the twentieth century by Shaun Cole. $65.00 hardcover, ISBN 1859734154; $22.50 paperback, ISBN 1859734200, Berg Pub Ltd.
• Ellsworth Kelly: the early drawings, 1948-1955, by Yve-Alain Bois. $45.00 paperback, ISBN 1891771078, U. of Chicago Press.
• Images of ambiente: homotextuality and latino/a american art, 1810 to today by Rudi C. Bleys. $75.95 hardcover, ISBN 0826447228, Continuum Pub Group, www.continuum-books.com.
• Black & white men by James Spada. $35.00 hardcover, ISBN 0967990823, Pond St. Press, distributed by Bookazine, Inc.
• Naked men, too by David Leddick. $35.00 hardcover, ISBN: 0789303965, Universe.
• Male of the species : four decades of photgraphy of Arthur Tress by David Sprigle. $60.00 hardcover, ISBN: 1883923409, Fotofactory.
• Letters of Charles Demuth, American artist, 1883-1935: with assessments of his work by his contemporaries, edited by Bruce Kellner. $54.50 hardcover, ISBN 1566397804, Temple University Press.
• The male nude by David Leddick. [New ed.] $29.99 paperback, ISBN: 3822857610, Taschen.
• Herb Ritts by Patrick Roegiers, $45.00 hardcover, ISBN: 0500974896, Thames & Hudson.
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