Mein Lesbisches Auge 2002 (My Lesbian Eye): Das Jahrbuch der Erotik XVIIa by Regina Nössler, Laura Méritt, and Kerstin Mächler, with text in German only, includes lesbian-themed sensual and sexual imagery from many different countries. Includes Rebecca Swan, Del LaGrace Volcano, Laurence Jaugey-Paget, Tee A. Corinne, and many others. Tübingen, Germany: konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke, 2002, 272 pp., paperback, ISBN 3-88769-171-7. Order from www.konkursbuch.com/
It would make me very happy if elegant books such as Ellsworth Kelly in San Francisco, with essays by Madeleine Grynsztejn and Julian Myers, would include at least a little queer content. There is no sex and no romantic liaisons among beautiful reproductions, and no indication of who took the photograph of a 44 year old Kelly (b. 1923) shown on a ladder in 1967 (nice buns). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 94 pp., $34.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-520-23784-6.
Eroticism in Pompeii by Antonio Varone is an interesting conversation starter dealing with ancient art. Pictured are many penises, some male-male sex, many images of men and women coupling, and a stunning reproduction of a marble hermaphrodite. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2001, 120 pp., $24.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-89236-628-1
Andy Warhol by Christopher Makos, in English and Italian, prints a collaboration carried out in 1981 in which Warhol poses in women’s make-up, and 8 different women’s wigs. It is a fabulous collection of images: moody, playful, funny, ironic, sad, and, at least for me, stirring. Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2002, no page numbers (ca. 400 p.), $29.95 paper, ISBN 88-8158-379-8, dist. by D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers.
Frauen: Erotische Fotografien Aus Berlin by Anja Müller, with text in German only, is a lovely, moody, erotic collection of black and white images of nude and semi-nude women. Müller (b. 1971) has crafted studies of personalities as much as of bodies and includes women of differing ages and body types. Tübingen, Germany: konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke, 2000, 152 pp., $29.95 paperback, ISBN: 3-88769-158-X, dist. by Art Stock www.artstockbooks.com (click on “program”).
Although I still haven’t seen it, I understand that James Smalls’ Homosexuality in Art is now out from Parkstone Press in Paris, 250 pp., $55 hardcover, ISBN 1-85995-865-6.
With his permission, I’m quoting part of Richard D. Mohr’s response to a question about queer content in his new book Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick. “This book is on anality, approached through shit’s perfect metonym, clay. The book’s main analytic categories are the sexual grotesque and the sexual abject. On the Kirkpatrick snake jugs, the snakes are fusions of turds and penises, that wend their way in and out of bodily holes ... The Ohr pot on the cover has ‘traditionally’ been called ‘The Vagina Pot’ but it seems to me that lots more is going on with it than that title would suggest. I call it the ‘pas de deux’ vase -- labia draped over a penis, which is approaching them from the ‘wrong’ direction. The prince is buttfucking the ballerina.” For more information see: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s03/mohr.html Although the publication date is March, the University of Illinois Press hopes to have copies at the CAA conference. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press 2003, 272 pp., $60.00 hardback, ISBN 0-252-02789-2)
CATALOGUES:
Dialogues and Meditations by Harmony Hammond, essay by Paul Eli Ivey, is from Hammond’s (b. 1944) exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2002) and features new work in evocative mixed media combinations. Tucson: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002, 16 pp., $12.00 paperback (includes postage), no ISBN, send check made out to Harmony Hammond to HC 75 Box 100, Galisteo, NM 87540.
Love Letters: Robert Rauschenberg and Terry Van Brunt by Jonathan Katz ties together and contextualizes a series of previously unexhibited and unpublished works by Rauschenberg (b. 1925) relating to his involvement with Terry Van Brunt. San Francisco: The Queer Cultural Center, 2002, 16 pp., $5.00 paperback, no ISBN, order through www.queerculturalcenter.org
Straight to Hell: 10 Years of Dyke Action Machine! (Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner), text by Robert Atkins, is a visually rich collection published to coincide with the DAM! show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. New York: Dyke Action Machine, 2000, 12 pp., $12.00, no ISBN, available from Printed Matter http://www.printedmatter.org/
Out of the Fifties -- Into the Sixties: Figurative Expressionists includes work by and photo of (among others) Beauford Delaney (1901-1979). New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2001, 32 pp., $25.00, ISBN 1-930416-09-1, http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com
Theodoros Stamos, Allegories of Nature: Organic Abstractions, 1945-1949 with text by Barbara Cavaliere contains photographs of Stamos (1922-1997) and reproductions of small, lyrical paintings. New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2002, 32 pp., $15.00, ISBN 1-930416-14-8, http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com
Tee A. Corinne
tcorinne@magick.net