Throughout history, the forum of what can be loosely termed “the arts” has been used as a driving force behind political activism and as a catalyst for social change.
As individuals we are influenced by issues of gender, ethnicity, race and sexual orientation that shape who we are and how we view the world. And some would claim that an artistic identity is directly shaped by a myriad of key social factors.
So too, in many ways, life experience directly informs the artist and guides them in their negotiations, directly reflecting their reality in their work. And one particular example of this direct engagement lies in the contributions made to the arts by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer artists.
While queer culture may indeed once have been known as “the love that dared not speak its name”, artists certainly had no inhibitions when it came to writing about it, painting it and composing ballads to it. Think Sappho’s love poems or Shakespeare’s sonnets.
The prodigious literary output of American playwright Edward Albee of Whose Afraid Of Virginia Woolf fame or the British W.H Auden whose classic poem Funeral Blues – made famous once again in the 90’s film Four Weddings & A Funeral, is arguably one of the most moving odes to lost love.
Consider David Hockney’s languid treatise to the beauty of the male form or Francis Bacon’s tortured testaments of gay longing and self loathing and denial.
What about the lyrical creations by British songster Rufus Wainright, or the gay-agenda-pushing, out and proud, American band Scissor Sisters who ironically first conquered Europe with their music and inclusive gay-positive ideology and are now setting their sights on changing the more conservative landscape of musical America.
And the fact that this has all been achieved in a climate that veers from general unease to distinct distaste of all things to do with gay rights and equality, as well as the purposefully confronting images and ideas that gay culture uses to promote itself into cultural consciousness, certainly adds resonance and power to the contributions these individuals have made. By challenging prejudice and giving a forum to the often voiceless and disenfranchised, queer artists work as both creative and cultural activist.
It has forced, in many cases, the purposeful creation of outlets for these significant works to be displayed and not lost in the cavernous realms of art and literature. Particularly when mainstream artistic and government institutions have been unable, or unwilling, to provide queer artists a forum for their works and ideas.
In turn, heated theoretical debates have raged over the last few decades as to whether or not some works created by individuals, such as Michelangelo can even be considered for inclusion in the “gay arts canon” given that the term itself is relatively new.
For example, since the term ‘homosexuality’ as a modern construct was only officially recognized in the mid-nineteenth century, the argument is that the art of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel with his representations of male nudes, for example, should not be included in the gay art canon.
Similarly the works of Walt Whitman, arguably one of the most important, most passionate and lyrical poets in American history are regularly studied in schools and universities across America, but his sexual orientation is not overtly discussed.
Indeed while homosexuality winds itself inextricably through his works, particularly in his Calamus poems contained in Leaves of Grass, (which was written as a response to a failed relationship), the truth of his homosexuality is often largely ignored.
In contrast, the photographic works and style of Robert Mapplethorpe is perhaps more publicly connected to his sexuality and the works from this artist are as renowned for thevcontroversial repercussions of exhibiting them as for their content.
Despite these controversies, advocates of queer art call for the history of queer arts and the contributions made by queer artists to be taught in schools, so that society will accept queer art as art not only for, by, or of gays and lesbians, but as part of the complete artistic landscape.
