Something I wrote over the fall course of 2019 for my art history class
Queer Art:
All the Different Colours of Queer Art
Liv Atterson
ARTH 101
25, September 2019
Queer Art:
All the Different Colours of Queer Art
Queer Culture
Queer Art is a relatively a new term. Queer is a new term in today’s society as whole, rather than having it be a derogatory slur, it is being embraced and used for a multitude of different art forms and identities. But what does Queer Art mean? Who are the people that make up the Queer Art community and/or culture? Within the paragraphs to come, I hope to inform you a little more on this new culture that has emerge within the last few decades. This will include the Stone Wall Inn and what took place the night of the riot. With the people that preformed there in the past and still do preform there currently. I will talk about queer authors and artists, the ones who made history and the ones that are just beginning their journey. By then end I hope you come to realize why I take pride in identifying within the queer community as an asexual lesbians; what it means to be around such beautiful, strong, and resilient people.
The Stone Wall Inn is a major part of our history. It was a major turning point for our community and held a plethora of changes to come. Stone Wall was the catalyst for everything else to come within the following decades. Today the Inn is a place that holds an entire assortment of performances and art (Where Pride Began). Everything from drag, stand-up comedy, to sketches can be found there. But before all of the fun and laughter that fills this bar today, there was secrecy and hate (Where Pride Began). Brutal fights, fires, and riots were the normality of this now-lively bar. Being subjected to constant raids, and searching patrons in the restroom who they suspected of cross-dressing. The offices clamed to do this under the “violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute”. But that night, on June 28, 1969 was the being of a revolution for queer people and queer art (History.com Editors).
The Stone Wall influenced people. It sparked a fire for the art that was to come in waves over the next few years in a verity of forms, weather that be written, or visual. Queer Art, and artists were around before the Stone Wall riot. They just weren’t as well known or kept their orientation hidden at that time for their safety. Now the whole world is not like this. As I hope to mention later and touch upon the artist Frida Kahlo. Who began her career in Mexico and later moved to San Francisco, then to New York City (Frida Kahlo Biography). Frida and her husband were in an open marriage. Whenever they saw other people outside of the marriage, they were both aware that they were seeing other people. But still choose to be married and love one another. But everything became so much more after the riot at the Stone Wall. People unabashedly showed their work and let it been seen to the public and the outside world. They persevered even in the face of haltered, death threats, and of phobic and close minded people. Those people were determined to tear them down. It showed other people that were not ready for the world know about their identify that they were not alone. That it was okay if they stayed hidden a little longer to blend in within the shadow, that the community would still be here waiting.
Such as I have previously mentioned Frida Kahlo was a bisexual painter or at the very least a supposed bisexual painter in an open relationship with Diego Rivera, her husband (Frida Kahlo Biography). Another queer artist was Mickalene Thomas. Thomas is a black, queer artist whose work primarily focuses on black women and women of different races, ethnicities, and also gender identities. I looked into Thomas collage titled Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires which translates to Two Black Women (Hoke). Deux Femmes is inspired by Gustave Corbet’s Le Sommeil or The Sleepers. Thomas loved to take “traditional” ideas of painting and make her own versions. Painting that would normally be “white-centered” and make them people of color or queer orientation. Another artist that I mentioned did some queer art also. Gustave Corbet. Corbet painting of Le Sommeil created in 1866, depicts two women positioned in the nude as one lays on top of the other asleep in a bed. It is an oil painting that is on display in The Petit Palais in Paris, France (Hoke).
In this paper I hope you found that Queer Art has been around for a long time. The Stone Wall riot were a pivotal moment for queers and a turning point for the law. I hope the news about Frida Kahlo was eye opening and informative. The Mickalene Thomas was a revelation to me and possible a new favorite of mine. Being around such beautiful and resilient people have helped me discover my own pride in who I am and how I identify.
1866, Gustave Courbet, Le Sommeil
2013, Mickalene Thomas, Sleep: Deux Femmes Noir