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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2007)
38 juStPUt AUGUST 3, ¿00/ books For the One-Fisted Reader Gay art history collection shows how far we haven't come as a culture by Gary Morris elix Lance Falkon’s 1972 racial stereotyping and distinct hx)k A Historic Collection ly un-PC images that popped of Gay Art was a best sell out of their sleazy unconscious. er (250,000 copies print Etienne’s “Arab Market," ed) and a breakthrough. where a hapless naked soldier is Gay men who had previously penetrated by an evil, leering sought stimulation by drooling sheik, or the Nazi lust tableau over postcards of Michelangelos of the same artist’s “Supper David or the underwear pages of Table,” are typical examples. the Sears catalog or, for the more The book has unquestion adventuresome, the “physique" able value as a look into the mags featuring hunks in posing fantasy life of gay men from straps or less could now get their the 1950s to the 1970s (with jollies along with their affirmation a smattering of fine art in one place. imagery by ancient Greek and Falkon’s hoik combined hard pre-Colombian sculptors and core gay art by some of the nota brilliant bles in the field—Tom of Finland, Aubrey Beardsley). Who knew Etienne, Rip Colt, Quaintance— S/M was so popular in the ’50s with biographical info and com and ’60s? Quite a few of the Published when draughtsmen like the hxik’s drawings riff on bondage, closet was still a common hangout torture chambers, rape and, for gay men, the btxik was coy in one inexplicably bizarre mentary. about identifying some of the The blazing but dreamy frontier idyll “Lake Apache" is among the most famous of George Quaintance s works. image, a small dragon that sets artists—protective pseudonyms abound. But the art itself was any a chained prisoner’s privates on fire with his magic breath. Some of thing but coy. It featured all the icons historically associated with the imagery clearly seems to come out of the kind of self-hate that homo lust—cowboys, sailors, farmhands, Marines, masters/slaves, afflicts any marginalized community. But there are also balancing daddies/boys—getting down and dirty in just about every way imag works of more innocent, positive, sensual encounters here that light inable. A Historic Collection of Gay Art has become a highly prized, en some of that darkness. and expensive, collectors item. A quick glance through the pages of Gay Art reveals some Thirty-five years later comes a new edition of the book, thing curious and unexpected. Some of the images are repro renamed as Gay Art: A Historic Collection (Arsenal Pulp Press, duced only partially, with a rip blatantly calling attention to the 2006; $24 95 softcover), that features much of the original art fact that the drawing has been censored. In some cases, half the along with some additions—and subtractions. Thomas Waugh, image is missing. In one especially strange one, the entire page a Montreal professor who’s done several important books on gay is blank except for a tiny triangle at the bottom showing simply art (including Out/Lines and Lust Unearthed), collaborated with a fixit, a hand and a cigarette. Thomas Waugh explains why in Falkon on this revised version. The h<x>k retains Falkon’s witty the introduction. Some of the original imagery was apparently profiles and commentary, updating it with the artists’ real name too hot to handle; most of it involved “intergenerational” love whenever possible, and adds a long introduction by Waugh or gay youth. Fears of censorship or getting the b<x>ks impound along with some clever interpretive captions. ed—particularly in the publisher’s home country of Canada, The art itself is a mixed bag to the modem eye. Some of these which has a long history of such behavior—dictated this policy, artists possess little more than rudimentary technique, although regrettable for those interested in an accurate historical Tecord technique wasn’t necessarily a must for the one-fisted reader. but probably necessary. The fact that some of these images were A 1950s artist named Blade contributes “Sperm Sundae," a laugh apparently not even particularly sexual but had to be removed ably lame image of a s<xla jerk adding “special sauce” to an ice anyway is a disturbing reminder of how far we haven’t come as cream sundae. Many of the figures are stiff (literally and figura a culture since that first edition. tively) and more silly than sexy. A little higher on the aesthetic scale are artists like Etienne and Tom of Finland, who at least had G ary M orris edits and publishes Bright Lights Film Journal, some style, although some readers might wince at the rampant located online at www.brightlightsfilm.com. 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