The Archive: Issue 57 Summer 2016 by Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

S U M M E R 2 0 1 6

THE ARCHI VE 57 Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art

Deborah Kass, The Band Played On #2, 2014, Acrylic and tape on canvas.

CONTENTS THE ARCHIVE ISSUE 57 SUMMER 2016

3 A DEEPER DIVE

ANDREW BARRON, CO-CURATOR

8 FOUR QUICK YEARS

HUNTER O’HANIAN, MUSEUM DIRECTOR

9 NEWS FROM PRINCE STREET PROJECT SPACE

ROB HUGH ROSEN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR PROGRAMMATIC OPERATIONS

12 ART AIDS AMERICA

JUSTIN RABIDEAU, DIRECTOR, BERNARD A. ZUCKERMAN MUSEUM OF ART

14 SPECIAL EVENTS AT LESLIE-LOHMAN MUSEUM

JERRY KAJPUST, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS

About the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art is the first and only dedicated LGBTQ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQ art and foster the artists who create it. Accredited by the New York State Board of Regents, the Museum has over 30,000 objects in its collections, spanning more than three centuries of queer art. The Museum hosts 6-8 major exhibitions annually, artist talks, film screenings, panel discussions, readings, and other events. In addition, the Museum publishes The Archive, a quarterly educational art publication, and maintains a substantial research library. The Museum is the premier resource for anyone interested in the rich legacy of the LGBTQ community and its influence on and confrontation with the mainstream art world. There is no other organization in the world like it. The Leslie-Lohman Museum was created as a non-profit entity by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011. It is exempt from taxation under section 501(c)3 of the IRS code. In 2015, it was merged with the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation which was created in 1987. That Foundation was created by Charles W. Leslie and Fritz Lohman, who have supported LGBTQ artists for over 30 years. The Leslie-Lohman Museum embraces the rich creative history of the LGBTQ art community by informing, inspiring, educating, entertaining, and challenging all who enter its doors..

Founders Charles W. Leslie J. Frederic Lohman (1922–2009)

16 GALLERIES OF INTEREST

Board of Directors

17 LESLIE-LOHMAN GAY ART LIBRARY

Jonathan David Katz, President Deborah Bright, Vice-President Cynthia Powell, Vice-President

CRYDER BANKES, LESLIE-LOHMAN LIBRARIAN

Meryl Allison, Treasurer James M. Saslow, Secretary Daniel S. Berger Steven J. Goldstein

18 THE COLLECTION

Co-Founder & Director Emeritus

20 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING AT THE MUSEUM

Staff

Meryl Allison, Interim Museum Director Wayne Snellen, Deputy Director for Collections Rob Hugh Rosen, Deputy Director for Programmatic Operations Jerry Kajpust, Deputy Director for External Relations Branden Wallace, Collections Manager Kris Grey, Exhibitions and Communications Manager Mon Iker, Operations Manager Cupid Ojala, PSPS Coordinator Harvey Redding, Leslie-Lohman Studio Em Miller, Education Coordinator Noam Parness, Exhibitions and Administrative Assistant Garrett Guilbeau, Bookkeeper Daniel Sander, Exhibitions and Administrative Assistant Johanna Galvis, Exhibitions and Administrative Assistant Massima Desire, Exhibitions and Administrative Assistant Nancy Canupp, Exhibitions and Administrative Assistant Riya Lerner, Membership Assistant Kim Hanson, Installations Chris Bogia, Collections Peter M. Schepper, Framing

EM MILLER, EDUCATION COORDINATOR

21 WINDOWS GALLERY: LEGEND IN MY LIVING ROOM

PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS BY JASPER BRIGGS

22 POWER BABIES: KEITH HARING’S IMPACT ON ARTISTS TODAY

RICK HERRON, CO-CURATOR

Hunter O’Hanian Robert W Richards Andr´e St. Clair Margaret Vendryes

Peter Weiermair Jeff Weinstein

Charles W. Leslie

Volunteer Staff Cryder Bankes, Library Steven Goldstein, Collections, Administration Daniel Kitchen, Museum Advocate Chuck Nitzberg, Events Cynthia Powell, Marketing, Development

James Powell, Special Projects Nirvana Santos, Exhibitions James Schlecter, Events Jason D. Smith, Events Conrad Ventur, Collections

The Archive The Archive is an educational journal published by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to educate the general public about the Museum, its activities, and gay art. John Burton Harter, Homage to Flandrin, II, 1994, Oil on board, 20 x 24 in. The John Burton Harter Charitable Trust.

Tom Saettel, Editor Joseph Cavalieri, Production and Design

©2016 The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Copyrights for all art reproduced in this publication belong to the artists unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

The Archive is available free in the Museum, and is mailed free of charge to LL Museum members.

The Leslie-Lohman Museum

This issue of The Archive is made possible by a generous donation from the

John Burton Harter Charitable Trust.

26 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013-2227 (212) 431-2609 info@leslielohman.org, leslielohman.org Gallery Hours: Tues.–Wed. 12-6pm, Thur. 12-8, Fri–Sun 12-6, Closed Mon. Closed on major holidays and between exhibitions.

FRONT COVER: Deborah Kass, The Band Played On #2, 2014, Acrylic and tape on canvas, 60 x 72 in. © Deborah Kass/Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

EXHIBITION ISSUE 57

A Deeper Dive July 15 — September 25, Leslie-Lohman Museum Curated by Jonathan David Katz and Andrew Barron Andrew Barron, Co-Curator

The impact of HIV/AIDS on American art will be acknowledged for the first time by a major New York City art museum when Art AIDS America travels to the Bronx Museum of the Arts this July. This exhibition features work from over 100 artists made in the 1980s, when the first cases of HIV were reported in the United States, to the present, and provides viewers an opportunity to engage with a breadth of artworks addressing HIV/AIDS in a manner hitherto unimaginable. A Deeper Dive is a project born directly out of Art AIDS America. As Art AIDS America developed over the course of the past ten years, part of the curatorial challenge became narrowing the selection of works from each artist to be included in the exhibition—the vast scope demanded that certain cuts be made. For the artists in Art AIDS America, the effect of HIV/AIDS on their lives and work was not a one-off occurrence; it preoccupied them throughout much of their careers and, in many cases, continues to preoccupy them today. A Deeper Dive thus grew out of the desire to further explore certain artists beyond the work presented in Art AIDS America—a more in-depth investigation of salient themes visa`-vis a select group of eight artists. Much like the experience prompted by Art AIDS America, as one traverses A Deeper Dive the question inevitably arises: How do these artworks reflect the experience of AIDS in America? Looking at Anthony Viti’s Elegy #57 (After MH’s Iron Cross), for instance, it becomes difficult for an immediate connection to be made. If one is unaware of the sociopolitical climate from which a work like this emerged, it appears to be merely an exercise in painterly abstraction, detached from any politicized meaning. Yet, in placing Viti’s work within the historical context of late 20th-century America, certain forms in the work take on a significance that would otherwise go unnoticed. A fundamental task of A Deeper Dive is to bring an understanding as (right) Karen Finley, Documentation of Karen Finley’s first installation of Written in Sand, 1992, at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY. © Hallwalls, Inc.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

EXHIBITION ISSUE 57

to why so many of these works appear the way they do—why much work about AIDS doesn’t look like work about AIDS. This virulently conservative period of American history saw the rise of the culture wars, a series of domestic assaults on, above all, queer and AIDSinformed art. One of the most ruthless of these attacks was against the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 1989, the NEA drew fire for giving grants to support art that the Christian Right thereafter deemed immoral. Following this conservative outcry against the arts, an amendment written by Senator Jesse Helms stipulated that Congress would “[p]rohibit the use of funds provided under this Act to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from being used to provide AIDS education information, or prevention materials and activities that promote, encourage, or condone homosexual activities...” This resulted almost exclusively in the federal censoring of all overt depictions of sexuality and AIDS in American graphics, publishing, television, and visual and performance art. Facing ostracism and the very real threat of defunding, major US art galleries and museums refused to exhibit work that could easily be identified as being about AIDS. Amid this manifest oppression, artists seeking to create works that addressed the politics of HIV/AIDS faced another enemy: postmodernist theory. This theory discredited all expressive intent in art; politics and sexuality, in particular, were heavily policed. Consequently, any work that explicitly referenced HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s and early 90s was doubly assaulted. Artists buried or encoded any expressive meanings in order to get their work publicly shown. Again, to take the example of Anthony Viti’s Elegy #57 (After MH’s Iron Cross), Viti appropriated Marsden Hartley’s early 20th-century paintings that featured the German iron cross to abstractly reference a German officer who died in the dawning days of WW1. In so doing he ironically points up the continuing necessity—nearly a century later—of queer coding

to evade censorship and covertly infiltrate the art establishment at this time of intense AIDS phobia. The eight artists of A Deeper Dive—many significantly underrecognized by the art world— embody a set of artistic responses to HIV/AIDS that, rather than exist as polarities, instead oscillate between and inform one another. These include the personal and the social, the contemplative and the experiential, the poetical and the political, the body present and the body absent. These seemingly disparate tensions shift as one moves within the exhibition and encounters different works. The dialogue initiated by grouping these artists together amplifies some of the more latent connections that exist throughout Art AIDS America, allowing for previously undiscovered thematic relationships to surface and expand by way of this intimate exchange. In representing various points along the continuing trajectory of the AIDS crisis, these artists illuminate some of the contours of the past thirty-five years in ways that are both confrontational and consoling. In the work of John Dugdale (b. 1960), autobiography is a means though which the individual becomes universal. Diagnosed with CMV-retinitis, an HIV-related illness that causes blindness, at the age of 33, Dugdale soon lost most of his sight. Shortly thereafter, he began the practice of photographing blindly whereby he contemplates images in his mind’s eye and, with the help of friends and studio assistants, brings those visions to life using 19th-century photographic techniques. Dugdale’s presence—corporeal and spiritual—plays a central role in much of his work, centrally informed by his life experience as an HIV-positive man. The human body also figures prominently in the work of Jimmy DeSana (1949–1990), though in a markedly different manner. In his later work from the mid-1980s, DeSana’s positioning of the body in relation to both itself and others takes on a deeper significance when placed in the context of the AIDS crisis. In many of these works, DeSana, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1990,

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

Brian Buczak, White Blood Cell Count, 1986, Acrylic on canvas, 14 x 11 in. Collection of Geoffrey Hendricks and the Brian Buczak Estate.

EXHIBITION ISSUE 57

(left) Brian Buczak, Corpse, 1982, Acrylic on canvas in five parts, 33 x 165 in. Collection of Geoffrey Hendricks and the Brian Buczak Estate. (below, clockwise from top left) Anthony Viti, Elegy #57 (After MH’s Iron Cross), 1993, Oil and human blood on Masonite, 15 x 15 in. Courtesy the artist. Anthony Viti, Elegy #67 (After MH’s Iron Cross), 1993, Oil and human blood on Masonite, 15 x 15 in. Courtesy the artist. Anthony Viti, Elegy #20 (After MH’s Iron Cross), 1992, Oil on masonite, 11 x 11 in. Courtesy the artist. Anthony Viti, Elegy #04 (After MH’s Iron Cross), 1991, Oil on Masonite, 11 x 11 in. Courtesy the artist.

attempts to depict a kind of bodily intimacy that is not predicated on intercourse. He seemingly asks: How does one maintain an erotic relationship in the midst of a plague? DeSana hints toward possibilities that are indeterminate, while at the same time projecting a more ominous turn that speaks to the disappearance of the self entirely. On the surface, Dugdale’s poignant soliloquies and DeSana’s more experimental esotericisms stand in contradistinction to the documentary photographs of Ann P Meredith (b. 1948). Her series Until That Last Breath! The Global Face of Women with HIV/AIDS centralizes the experience of HIV-positive women of color during the late 1980s and early 1990s, revealing the fraught politics of representation surrounding one of the most marginalized communities in America at the end of the last century. Through black-and-white photographs of women situated in their homes and surrounding neighborhoods, Meredith individualizes and gives voice to those who were occluded from the mainstream media’s depiction of HIV/AIDS. The works of Glenn Ligon (b.1960) that are part of A Deeper Dive incorporate a politics that is less explicit than Ann Meredith’s, though no less potent. Text-based works such as his My Fear Is Your Fear from 1995 extend beyond an identity-based politics and point toward the underlying emotion that binds differently affected communities by involving both artist and viewer. The work speaks to a disappearing subjectivity, as the interplay between foreground and background make legibility difficult. In other works, text takes on an even more fragmented, abstract form and becomes nearly incoherent. Ligon’s work further exemplifies the ways American artists deployed critically sanctioned forms of postmodernism to covertly address HIV/AIDS at a time when overtly politicized depictions were still unacceptable. This invitation to participate, implicit in Ligon’s work, becomes fully manifest in Karen Finley’s (b. 1956) Ribbon Gate from 2015, where she calls

upon viewers to tie a piece of colored ribbon to a metal gate as a means of commemorating someone they’ve lost to AIDS. This echoes Finley’s 1992 installation Written in Sand, which asked viewers to participate in a similar act of remembrance by writing the names of lost loves in shifting sand heaped in giant dunes.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

EXHIBITION ISSUE 57

In the work of Brian Buczak (1954–1987), another artist whose life was tragically cut short by AIDS, painterly abstractions transform into representations of the body’s interiority, or connote death. His s´eance paintings, like his imagery of the blood system, make large and collective what was too often seen as singular and isolated. The abstract body appears in the early work of Anthony Viti (b. 1961), as well. In his paintings from the early 1990s, bodily forms are suggested. In later works, these forms start to disintegrate, as the body’s interior fluids—our blood and urine—are used as painterly mediums. Yet later works explicitly confront viewers with the dangers associated with certain sexual practices and subcultures, while also lending visibility to persisting erotic desires, some that even turn on the eroticization of risk itself. Viti asks us to consider the role of sexual agency and pleasure in a “post-AIDS” world. Deborah Kass (b. 1952), in her text-based series Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times and No Kidding, celebrates tenacity and survival.

Kass appropriates canonical artists and styles and gives them a renewed social and political relevance through her play between text and image. Without openly naming HIV/AIDS, these works operate on multiple levels and serve as a reminder of continued existence despite the odds, both personally and as a community. If Art AIDS America seeks to unearth the indelible mark AIDS has left on our collective consciousness, then A Deeper Dive aims to probe more deeply into how specific artists have contributed to that collectivity through a diverse set of strategies and approaches. The works in A Deeper Dive reflect individual difference while still evoking a strong sense of community and commonality, drawing our attention to the shared experience of the AIDS crisis that implicates us all. n ...................................................................................................................

Andrew Barron is a PhD student in Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. His research focuses on American queer and feminist art after 1960, with particular attention paid to art coming out of the AIDS epidemic.

(top) Deborah Kass, Prepare for Saints #3, 2015, Acrylic and tape on canvas, 72 x 60 in. © Deborah Kass/Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (above) John Dugdale, Palm Sunday Self Portrait, 2016, Cyanotype, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy the artist. (left) John Dugdale, The Oversoul, 1998, Cyanotype, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy the artist.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

EXHIBITION ISSUE 57

(top left) Glenn Ligon, My Fear Is Your Fear, 1995, Screenprint on black wove paper, Ed. 325, 20 APs, 12.13 x 9.13 in. © Glenn Ligon, Collection of Esther McGowan. (above) Glenn Ligon, Dispatches (Detail), 2011, Aquatint with spit-bite and drypoint on Hahnemühle, Suite of 4, Ed. 18, 5 APs, 2PPs, Image size: 19.75 x 15.75 in. © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London. (left) Ann P Meredith, Eleana y Rosa, the Ellipse at the White House, Washington, DC, 1988. Digital archival print, 2016. 14.5 x 22 in. © AnnPMeredith.com UNTIL THAT LAST BREATH! The Global Face of Women with HIV/AIDS 1987-1997.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

THE MUSEUM ISSUE 57

Four Quick Years Hunter O’Hanian, Museum Director

I first visited the Leslie-Lohman Museum in the summer of 2011, just a month after it received its provisional accreditation from the New York State Board of Regents. I was working on a photo project and had an appointment with Stanley Stellar in his studio. I knew Stanley had a one-person exhibition at the Museum and I wanted to see his work in person. I was curious about the Museum and its mission. Little did I know that a year later, I would be the Museum’s first director. A lot has happened over the past four years. We have seen the Museum grow and blossom in many exciting ways. Fueled by the founders’ vision and the creation of the Leslie-Lohman Foundation in 1987, what was once a small underground not-for-profit has turned into a professional museum. It has been a pleasure to watch and play a hand in that development. We have institutionalized policies and procedures consistent with American Alliance of Museums’ guidelines. We have seen major positive critical reviews by nearly every serious art publication. We have sent exhibitions to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, and Boston. In 2016 we will have works from the collection in a dozen cities around the world. As important as it is that other museums seek to borrow work from our collection, it is very satisfying that other major museums such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress have lent the Museum work, enabling us to meet our curatorial goals. We have received the respect and support of governmental and private foundation funders, most recently the Keith Haring and Henry Luce Foundations. This support provides us with

significant resources and professional validation for our efforts. We have professionalized our collections area in meaningful ways. We have begun publishing catalogs with rigorously vetted academic content. We have created an award-winning docent program as we have taken our educational programming more seriously, establishing a forum for different points of view. We have supported emerging artists through the programming at the Prince Street Project Space and the Fire Island Artists Residency Program. Finally, we have done the work that will allow us to expand in our existing location. Despite all of these accomplishments, without question, the most personally rewarding experience has been the opportunity to work with the Museum’s donors, members, staff, volunteers, and board members. We have seen our Board of Trustees grow into a responsible and deliberative body valiantly serving as stewards of our mission to preserve and exhibit work that speaks to the entire LGBTQ community. In particular, we value that work which might be denied access through other mainstream organizations because of its content. We provide leadership to other museums to show that gay-themed professional exhibitions are possible and in fact desirable. Without the Board of Trustees, this amazing growth would not have been possible. As I leave to become the head of the College Art Association, I depart with a wonderful sense of accomplishment. At times, it feels overwhelming. However, knowing that I will stay part of the collective effort through service on the Museum’s Board of Trustees offers me the opportunity to remain involved in the Museum’s future growth. This brings me great satisfaction. n

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

Hunter O’Hanian (left front) with John Arsenault (far left) at the book signing of Barmaid by John Arsenault (Daylight Books), October 2015, Leslie-Lohman Museum.

PRINCE STREET PROJECT SPACE ISSUE 57

News from Prince Street Project Space May — September, 2016 All openings Fridays 6-8pm; Continuing Sat & Sun noon-6pm Rob Hugh Rosen, Deputy Director of Programmatic Operations

(top left to right) Robert W Richards, Seduction, 2016, Book cover detail. JC Etheredge, William Showers, 2013, Watercolor pencil on paper, 8.5 x 5.75 in. Courtesy the artist. (bottom) Jessica Posner, Bride (Detail), 2013, Women’s undergarments, polymer gypsum, cotton bed sheet, wooden broomstick, plant, steel, Variable dimensions. Courtesy the artist.

May 6-8 Seduction, Robert W Richards The artist hosted a book-signing party for his newest volume published by Bruno Gmünder, Seduction: Erotic Illustrations by Robert W Richards. In a review of the book, the host of the radio show Out Loud & Live!, JC Alvarez, wrote: “It is a bold and alluring collection of the artist’s visions. The male form [is] captured in various states engaged in the art of flirtation and glorious eroticism, in stages of undress and costume.” Speaking of his work, Richards says, “I no longer want my erotic work to be defined by the penis or any specific sex act. My focus now is trying to capture the message in a man’s eyes.” Richards also presented an exhibition of his original drawings, some represented in the book and some more recently created.

May 13-15 Erotic Desire: The Sixth Annual Gay Erotic Art Fair

June 10-12 Highly Functional: The Feminist Art of Jessica Posner Posner (American, born 1985) earned an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons, and currently teaches in the School of Art and the Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University, NY. Her work has been shown across the United States and Europe. Here Posner presents a multimedia exhibition of objects, images, and “performances by femme, fat, and fragmented performers shaped by lesbian feelings, feminist necessity, contingent realities, and cultural violence.” The artist’s sculptures involving women’s shapewear, medical accessories, broom handles, plants, and other objects become actresses in a feminist interpretation of the Pygmalion myth. During the exhibition, Posner will be present as a functional artist. She may be writing grant applications, working on projects, reading tarot cards, doing yoga, and hanging out with new and old friends.

Presented by Daniel Kitchen, the eleven participating artists were: JC Etheredge, Anthony Gonzales, E Green, kk2n777, Tai Lin, Alvaro Luna, Chuck Nitzberg, John Riddle, Shungaboy, Court Watson, and Todd Yeager.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

PRINCE STREET PROJECT SPACE ISSUE 57

(left) Dusty St. Amand, Layered: Brandon, 2015, Digital print, Size varies. Courtesy the artist. (below) Artur Pashkov, Reflection, 2014, Photograph on paper, 8.5 x 11 in. Courtesy the artist. (bottom) Sean O’Connor, One Who Praises Himself, Is Praised, (Detail), 2016, Acrylic on canvas, Full size: 30 x 40 in. Courtesy the artist.

June 24-26 Dark Days, Photography of Dusty St. Amand Dusty St. Amand (American, born 1987) has a BFA in musical theater. Completely self-taught as a photographer, St. Amand presents his first solo exhibition. His images are an offering, and an exploration, of intimacy with men close to his age. With representations of male vulnerability, sexual encounters, or moments of exhibition between strangers, the artist offers a view of a time when he found himself disconnected from humanity, mired in addiction, and looking for aspirational references within every subject he came to photograph. With his practice, St. Amand strives “to inspire by being representative of aspiration.”

July 22-24 Sexual Energy, Art of Artur Pashkov Pashkov was born in Moscow, Russia in 1980, immigrated to New York in 2001, and graduated with a BFA from Pace University in 2007. Employing photography, drawing, and painting, Pashkov explores the idea of sexual energy as a mechanism that drives our world. Focusing on the nude

self-portrait as a consistent theme, Pashkov insists on renouncing shame by revealing himself in his photographs. In his paintings Pashkov continues the motif of the nude self-portrait as he represents his unconscious visions and dreams. Considering the image of the nude to be essential to his art, Pashkov wishes to be free of society’s restraints and to share his emotions, often impossible for him to describe with language.

August 5-7 Graven Images, Paintings by Sean O’Connor O’Connor (American, born 1983), having attended Parsons School of Design for both his bachelor and master’s degrees, presents his first solo exhibition. O’Connor’s work is influenced by both the progress of political equality for the queer community in general and the radical shift in the way gay men meet through digital interaction. Employing forms of graphic illustration and symbolic imagery, the artist depicts such themes as the contemporary fascination with vanity and body worship, ultimately expressing contradiction, melancholy, whimsy, and the erotic.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

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August 19-21 Daughters of Mercury, Paintings by Janet Bruesselbach Bruesselbach describes herself as “an able white cis fem painter raised by scientists in Los Angeles, living and working in New York City.” She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006 and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2009. Bruesselbach crowdfunds projects to use what she is good at for the benefit of trans, queer, and marginalized people—all with whom she has developed virtual intimacy. Recently the artist has produced 23 large-scale oil portraits for her series, Daughters of Mercury. The artist sees Mercury as representing a feminine, fluid element, a divinity of transformation and communication, and as a cyborg embodiment. Each portrait, celebrating the beauty of trans women loved and admired by the artist, was a collaboration with the subject honoring the construction of their image under the stresses of hypervisibility.

September 9-11 Antonio Lopez: Photo Cocktail Party, Presented by El Museo del Barrio This installation will recreate a legendary party that fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez and his creative collaborator, Juan Ramos, threw for their friends (above) Janet Bruesselbach, Frida, 2015-2016, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Courtesy the artist. (right) Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, Assorted Guests from Art and Cocktail Party, 1976, Large format Polaroid, 10 x 8 in. Courtesy the Archives of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos.

in 1976. Partygoers had their photos taken with a large-format Polaroid camera, and the instant prints were hung on the walls as the party filled with the arrival of more and more guests. The occasion will be recreated in homage to Antonio, the renowned Puerto Rican fashion illustrator who bridged NYC subculture and style with a broader high-fashion audience. The PSPS weekend installation will coincide with the exhibition, Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion, at El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino cultural institution. From June 14 through November 26, 2016, El Museo del Barrio is displaying the work of Lopez and Ramos with drawings, prototypes for fantasy shoes, Antonio’s well-known instamatic photographs, portraits of fashion-world luminaries, documentary photographs, and many materials from the duo’s archives. The artists’ daring exploration of race, gender, and the body through fashion are key elements of the exhibition.

September 23-25 The Extras, An Installation by Maya Suess Suess, born in Canada and having received her MFA in performance from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her series, The Extras, combines drawings, sculptural remnants, and an audioscape in a playful exploration of survivalism. The artist’s intent is to bring a unique feminist spin to the post-apocalyptic scenarios that live large in our collective consciousness but rarely transcend the dominant patriarchal ideology of our culture. The Extras is a mythology of the future, one where culture, spirituality, and survival are produced afresh by a group of women existing in an unspecified time and place. The installation is an invitation for viewers to discover this narrative. The Extras will also include a series of still-life drawings. Alluding to illustration, comic books, and scientific reference drawings, Suess investigates the subject of collapse and survival with humor and irreverence. n

(far right) Maya Suess, The Extras, Woman 1 on Red, 2015, Graphite, colored pencil, and Cont´e, 40 x 32 in. Courtesy the artist.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

OUTSIDE OUR WALLS ISSUE 57

Art AIDS America Justin Rabideau, Director, Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art

A decade in the making of Art AIDS America was co-curated by Tacoma Art Museum’s Chief Curator, Rock Hushka, and Jonathan D. Katz, PhD, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program, University at Buffalo. The exhibition assembles 125 significant works in a wide range of media that together explore the impact of HIV/AIDS on American art and society. When Rock Hushka arrived in Atlanta three years ago to talk about the possibility of presenting Art AIDS America at the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, our building was still a construction site. Raw unfinished walls and hard hats were included in the short tour of the soon-to-be new art museum on the campus of Kennesaw State University in the northern suburbs of metro Atlanta. In those early discussions about bringing the exhibition to Atlanta, a location so impacted by HIV/ AIDS, education was a top consideration and motivating factor. Educational initiatives, key to promoting prevention, empathy, and understanding of this complex disease, have unfortunately been de-emphasized over the years. There are fewer and fewer educators and organizations taking on topics such as HIV/AIDS. Incredible medical advances such as the “cocktail” and PrEP have changed public perceptions around this disease. Lack of or limited sexual education within the school systems in America has produced a generation of misinformed or uninformed populations. A recent study for the metro-Atlanta region stated that 50% of new HIV infections are occurring in individuals between the ages of 16-24 years, and a disproportionate number of new cases are in the African-American community. AfricanAmericans make up 29% of Georgia’s population, though 77% of new AIDS cases in the state are from this segment of the population. These heartbreaking statistics highlighted the need to bring Art AIDS America to our university and metro-Atlanta communities. Having grown up in the 1980s, I remember learning about HIV/AIDS in school at an early age, the teacher delicately tiptoeing around the subject while stressing the deadly ramifications of infection to the students. There may have been an image or two, scientific and sterile, helping to highlight the facts about how one can and cannot contract this terrifying disease. I remember the hesitation in the teacher’s voice about dealing with the specifics, but I also recall her bravery in tackling this topic in order to give us the power of

knowledge. Thankfully she was willing to talk about this disease when so many refused to acknowledge its existence, refused to offer aid, shake a hand, or share in the grief. To educate responsibly we must be brave—brave to speak the truth, brave to face our fears, and brave to be honest. Art AIDS America creates a space for bravery. This exhibition becomes a unique opportunity not only to underscore the deep and unforgettable impact of HIV/AIDS on American art, but also to introduce and explore a wide range of responses. Boldly facing the politics, pain, suffering, anger, and reliance through the most human of expressions, Art AIDS America offers a context, a voice, and face to a disease that is new for many audiences. As Deborah Kass’s work, Still Here, so succinctly highlights, the impact of HIV/AIDS is not in the past. In its final weeks at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, I witnessed firsthand the bravery that this exhibition can stimulate—from groups like the Tacoma Action Collective that called for more inclusion, to artists such as Kia Labeija sharing their intimate stories, to our educators, students, and community actively using this exhibition to break the silence around HIV/

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

AIDS. After a recent tour by a group of KSU students, this comment was left in a response book: “Thank you for such an awesome exhibit. Once again we are reminded that we are not invincible and that any of us can be

(below) Art AIDS America installation shot. Courtesy the Zuckerman Museum of Art. Photo: Mike Jensen. (left to right) Ronald Lockett, Cover of Night, 1992, Paint, chicken wire, nails, photograph, and cellophane on plywood. Courtesy High Museum of Art, Atlanta; T. Marshall Hahn Collection. Catherine Opie, San Francisco City Hall, Candlelight March for AIDS #2, 1986, Pigment print, ed. 1 of 3, with 2 artist proofs, 18 x 12.5 in. Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Jesse Finley Reed, Decorative Barrier, 6 ft., 2003, Vinyl, brass, foam, and thread, Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Nan Goldin, The Plague, 1986-2001, printed 2007, Grid of 16 silver dye bleach prints, 13 x 19.375 in. each, 59.75 x 85.25 x 2 in. overall. Courtesy The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gift of Nina and Michael Zilkha in honor of Alison D. Lima Greene. Deborah Kass, Still Here, 2007, Oil and acrylic on canvas. 45 x 63 in. Courtesy private collection.

OUTSIDE OUR WALLS ISSUE 57

affected by this. Education is key to ending ignorance around HIV/AIDS and I believe something has ignited within me to advocate for those affected.” Art AIDS America is a story of resilience and beauty revealed through art. This exhibition is also a story of what happens when artists, organizations, and communities come together to face our fears, angers, shortcomings, love, pain, and joy. Together we can make room for bravery to exist, and through that bravery we can learn and advocate together. n ........................................................................................................................

The Leslie-Lohman Museum is a sponsor of the national tour of Art AIDS America. It closed on May 22, 2016 at the Zuckerman Museum of Art and will open at the Bronx Museum of the Arts on July 13, 2016. ........................................................................................................................

Justin Rabideau is Director of the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Originally from New York, Rabideau has a BFA from SUNY Plattsburgh and an MFA from the University of Georgia. Rabideau has worked at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, and the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida. During his four years as director, the Zuckerman Museum has been awarded Best New Museum by Atlanta Magazine and received grants from the NEA and the Georgia Council for the Arts.

Kia Labeija, 24, 2014, Inkjet print, 13 x 19 in. Courtesy the artist.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

SPECIAL EVENTS ISSUE 57

Events Programming at Leslie-Lohman Museum Jerry Kajpust, Deputy Director for External Relations

In addition to the exciting exhibitions offered at the Museum, we continue to provide a robust offering of events. Here are some of the highlights from the past few months. On March 10 a memorial was held honoring Edward (Ted) Lippincott, an accomplished attorney, valued member of the Museum, and avid art collector. The evening, which was a mix of family, friends, artists, and museum staff, displayed works by George Towne, Dan Romer, and Howard Sabin. We are proud that many pieces from Ted’s collection have been donated to the Museum. This Is Gay Propaganda: LGBT Rights and the War in Ukraine is a feature-length documentary detailing the struggle for LGBT rights in the wake of the Euromaidan revolution of 2013/14. A packed audience in March shared a powerful and emotional evening. The film documents the journey of the director, Marusya Bociurkiw, as she traveled to three cities in Ukraine interviewing refugees and activists just after the Russian occupation of Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine. The film includes her own parallel story of growing up queer in Canada, and finding LGBT community in the place she least expected it—Ukraine. In the film we were introduced to several memorable characters, including Alexandra, an LGBT activist whose face was on a wanted poster plastered across the city of Donetsk; Sergo, a Georgian activist facing violence from his own family; and Olena, a leader in LGBT and feminist organizing in Ukraine. In Russian-occupied Ukraine and Crimea, AIDS organizations have been defunded and LGBT parents fear having their children seized by authorities. Thousands of LGBT refugees have fled the regions, joining the almost two million internally displaced people in Ukraine. This film is no victim narrative, as it presents Ukraine’s first generation of out LGBT activists as young, hip, and deeply engaged in the rebuilding of their country. We presented the film I Don’t Exist If You Don’t, which weaves interviews with nine of performance artist and director Ann Liv Young’s works staged in Europe and the United States, occurring over a period of nine years. In the various performances Ann Liv appears as a series of characters, from a mermaid spitting entrails to Martha Washington having intercourse on stage, from a Cinderella to her alter ego, Sherry, a therapist from the South. She invites her audience to play a role in the performances, and this can be a place where it’s hard to distinguish what is real and what is fake. Kathryn Karwat and George Pitts directed the film.

Dan Romer, Untitled 18, 2009, Acrylic and pencil on paper, 7 x 7 in. Gift of Edward Lippincott. Collection Leslie-Lohman Museum.

We were proud once again to host a group of finalists nominated for this year’s Lambda Literary Awards held on June 6 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Lambda Literary identifies and celebrates the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books of the year and affirms that LGBTQ stories are part of the literature of the world. Nineteen finalists that included Ann Aptaker, JP Howard, Trace Peterson, Anna North, Robert Levy, Mark S. Luckie, Sassafras Lowrey, Rickey Laurentiis, Nivea Castro, Jee Leong Koh, Jeremy Sorese, Sarah McCarry, Holly Hughes, Heather Mar´ıa A´ cs, Sabina Ibarrola, Damien Luxe, Chinelo Okparanta, Ioannis Pappos, and Adam Silvera read excerpts from their work to a full house of eager listeners.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

During the exhibition, The 1970s: The Blossoming of a Queer Enlightenment, we’ve presented a diverse group of docents for free public tours. Our lists of docents includes: Sur Rodney (Sur) is a writer, artist, archivist, and activist. A fixture on the East Village art scene, codirector of Gracie Mansion Gallery, he has shifted his practice to work with artists affected by the growing AIDS crisis, leading to his involvement with Visual AIDS and other organizations. Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet, writer, and actress. She has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Out, VIBE, and on the cover of New York Magazine. Perry Brass has published 19 books, including poetry, novels, short fiction, science issues

SPECIAL EVENTS ISSUE 57

with English and fine arts majors. She studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and at the Feminist Studio Workshop at Cal Arts with Judy Chicago and Mimi Shapiro. James Saslow’s teaching and research has focused on the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods, with special interests in gender and sexuality, global cross-cultural exchange, and the visual aspects of the theater. His first book, Ganymede in the Renaissance (Yale, 1986), helped open the field of art history to serious consideration of the role of homosexuality and gender in the art and society of the early modern period. Steven F. Dansky, activist, writer, and photographer, was one of the subjects in the Peter Hujar photgraph taken forty-six years ago and featured in The 1970s exhibition. The 1970 photograph for the political poster titled, “Come Out!!: Join the Sisters and Brothers of the Gay Liberation Front,” is the most iconic photograph of the early LGBTQ movement. Jill Ariela has been working at the intersection of the arts and culture for over a decade as a creative producer, grant writer, administrator, and arts advocate. With a passion for fostering community action through creative collaborations, she is currently producing, and collaborating on, a number of projects, including independent film, queer storytelling, nightlife events, public installations, and local radio broadcasting. Rich Wandel joined New York’s Gay Activists Alliance in the 1970s and was its second president. He was a participant in the first Christopher Street Liberation Day March. Kris Grey, Exhibitions and Communications Manager at the Museum, continues to lead stellar private tours for school and community groups through each exhibition. Contact the Museum to reserve them. Here are some comments received from tour goers demonstrating the importance and impact of our ongoing programming.

(right) Ann Liv Young as Mermaid, photo by George Pitts, 2014. Courtesy of the artist. (below) Still image from This Is Gay Propaganda: LGBT Rights and the War in Ukraine, 2015. Courtesy Winds of Change Productions.

“As a young gay man, you made me realize of how unaware I was of the deep history there is to the gay community. Meeting you was a real eye-opener, and it gave me a desire to learn more and be more involved with the community.” of sexual freedom, personal authenticity, and personal politics coming out of his involvement with the gay liberation movement. MM Serra teaches in the media studies program at the New School for Social Research in NYC. Serra’s topics include horror films, sex and gender in media, as well as the avant-garde and the moving image. Hugh Ryan is a curator and journalist based in Brooklyn, whose work primarily explores queer culture and history. Peter Cramer is a multimedia artist who works in performance art, film, video, and installations.

Jack Waters is a visual artist, filmmaker, writer, media artist, choreographer, and performer. Cramer and Waters have a 22-year collaboration on projects that include the video/photo installation Pride 2001-We Remember at the Donnell branch of the New York Public Library. Marvin J. Taylor, Director of the Fales Library, holds a BA in comparative literature, an MLS from Indiana University, and an MA in English from NYU. He was editor of The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984. Christina Schlesinger graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, Harvard University in 1968

“Hi, I had a great tour/conversation today with a black lesbian author who published the chapbook Gift. ...I am definitely coming back for other artists and poets, especially because this woman was so endearing.” “My sister, an English teacher in my upstate high school, started an LGBTQ student organization. She recently organized the coolest gay walking tour of NYC ever for 25 students, which included the Museum. I was inspired! Three cheers to the Museum and the lovely employees for treating us to an approachable and appropriate worldview.” n

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

GALLERIES ISSUE 57

Galleries of Interest Also see PSPS Exhibitons on Page 9.

NEW YORK CITY

NORTHEAST

Better Being Restaurant, 537 9th Av., NYC, betterbeing.net Jul 14-Nov 16 Joseph Cavalieri: Hot Glass in Hell’s Kitchen

Adam Peck Gallery, 137 Commercial St. Provincetown, MA Jul 27-Aug 2 Sian Robertson; Aug 2-9 Robert Goldstrom; Sep Kathy Cotter

BGSQD The Center, 208 W 13 St., NYC bgsqd.com thru Sep 4 Persons of Interest, curated by Sam Gordon for Visual AIDS

Firehouse Gallery, 8 Walnut Street, Bordentown, NJ, firehousegallery.com Work by Eric Gibbons

ClampArt, 521-531 W. 25 St., NYC, clampart.com El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave, NYC thru Nov 26 Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion Grey Art Gallery, 100 Washington Square E, NYC, nyu. edu/greyart thru July 9 Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists 1934–2000 La MaMa La Galleria, 47 Great Jones St. lamama.org/ lagalleria thur Jul 3 Ingo Swann: A Remote View Macie Gransion, 87 Rivington St., NYC, maciegransion.com Museum of Sex, 233 Fifth Avenue, NYC, museumofsex.com

Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St, Boston, MA bcaonline.org thru Jul 10 Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community Rice/Polak Gallery, 430 Commercial St., Provincetown, MA ricepolakgallery.com thru Jul 7 Group Exhibition Jul 7-Jul 27 Patrick Webb, Lisbeth Firmin, and others; Jul 28-Aug 17 Michael Snodgrass, Julie Levesque, and others; Aug 18-Sep 7 Joshua Meyer, and others The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky St., Pittsburgh, PA, warhol.org thru Aug 28 Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art 7 N. Main St., Lambertville, NJ, wesseloconnor.com wesseloconnor.com thru Jul 31 Jefferson Hayman

Edward Cella Art+Architecture, 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, edwardcella.com thru Jul 31 Richard Prince: The Douglas Blair Turnbaugh Collection (1977-1988)

EUPOPE Amsterdam

JDC Fine Art 2400 Kettner Blvd, #208, San Diego, CA thru Aug 13 Marjorie Salvaterra: Sheila With Red Hair ONE National Gay; Lesbian Archives, 909 W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, one.usc.edu thru Jul 30 M. Lamar: Funeral Doom Spiritual; thru Jul 30 FUCK! Loss, Desire, Pleasure ONE Archives Gallery & Museum, 909 W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA onearchives.org thru Jul 10 Cock, Paper, Scissors, collage by 15 artists

P P O W, 535 West 22nd St., NYC, ppowgallery.com • • •

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave., NYC metmuseum.org thru Jul 17 Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms; Jul 7-Nov 27 Diane Arbus: In the Beginning Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St. NYC whitney.org thru Sep 25 Danny Lyon: Message to the Future photographs; thru Feb 2017 Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney Collection

BROOKLYN AND QUEENS Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY brooklynmuseum.org thru Aug 7 AGITPROP! Figureworks 168 N. 6th St., Brooklyn, NY, figureworks.com Jul 2-31 Jessica Hargraves: New Relief Paintings; Sep 9-Oct 30 Making Music: Group Show The Bronx Museum, 1040 Grand Concourse Bronx, NY, bronxmuseum.org, Jul 13-Sep 25 Art AIDS America

IHLIA, Oosterdokskade 143, Amsterdam, ihlia.nl thru Aug 24 First Pride March in Amsterdam, 1977

Berlin NGBK, Oranienstrasse 25 ngbk.de Jul 9-Aug 28 Contesting/ Contexting Sport 2016; Sep 10-Oct 3 Ene-Mene-Muh And Which City Do You Want? Contributions to Berlin Elections 2016 Schwules Museum, Lutzowstrasse 73, Berlin, schwulesmuseum.de Jul 15-Oct 17 Peter Kothe: An East West German Life, Stage design; thru Nov 20 Am I Dandy? Instructions on How to Lead an Extravagant Life; thru Sep 18 Millionaires Can Be Trans: You Are So Brave, multimedia

Groningen, NL

Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA regenprojects.com

Galerie MooiMan, Noorderstationsstraat 40, 9717KP Groningen, NL, mooi-man.nl thru Jul 17 My Naked Eye

The Advocate & Gochis Galleries, 1125 N. McCadden Pl., Los Angeles, CA, lagaycenter.org

Madrid

Tom of Finland Foundation 1421 Laveta Terrace, Los Angeles, CA http://tomoffinlandfoundation.org

La Fresh Gallery, Conde de Aranda 5, Madrid, lafreshgallery.com Ongoing Bruce LaBruce, Gorka Postigo, Nicol´as Santos, Brian Kenny, Slava Mogutin

MIDWEST

Munich

Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N. Greenview Ave. Chicago, IL leatherarchives.org thru Jul 2 Leather People of Color curated by Alisa Swindell

Kunstbehandlung/Saatchi Gallery 40 Müller Strasse 40, Munich, kunstbehandlung.de The Male Figure 7

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Dr., Evanston, IL blockmuseum.northwestern.edu thru Jul 17 A Feast of Astonishments: Charlott e Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s PHD, 2300 Cherokee St. Saint Louis, MO phdstl.com thru Jul 19 Selfie Stl photography

The Invisible Dog 51 Bergen St. Bklyn heinvisibledog.org

Patricia; Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami, FL, thefrost.fiu.edu thru Sep 18 In the Beginning Was the Word: Works by Corita Kent

Antebellum Gallery, 1643 N Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood, CA, antebellumgallery.blogspot.com

GLBT History Museum, 4127 18 St., San Francisco, CA, glbthistory.org/museum thru Jul 4 Feminists to Feministas 27 posters 1970s to 1990s; thru Aug 7 Dancers We Lost; Jul 21-Oct 16 Stroke: From Under the Mattress to the Museum Wall, curated by Robert W Richards

Participant Inc, 253 E. Houston St., NYC, participantinc

SOUTH

Stonewall Museum, 2157 Wilton Dr., Wilton Manors, FL stonewallnationalmuseum.org thru Jul 3 Blake Little: Archetype; Jul 7-Aug 7 Marilyn: Kissing an Icon; Aug 11Sep 18 Gay Advertising: The Clothing Catalogs; Sep 22Nov 6 Robert Kalman, I Am Here: The Lesbian Portraits

WEST

Shinji Horimura, Untie, 2016. See The Male Figure 7, Kunstbehandlung, Munich.

Sian Robertson, Roma, 2015, Collage using old maps, 20 x 16 in. See Adam Peck Gallery, Provincetown, MA.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

Paris Galerie au Bonheur du Jour, 1 rue Chabanais, Paris, aubonheurdujour.net thru Sep 20 The Boys from Taormina; Ongoing Photos, Drawings, Publications

Vienna Leopold Museum, at the MuseumsQuartier, Vienna leopoldmuseum.org thru Jul 4 Wilhelm Lembruck: Retrospective thru Sep 5 Berlinde de Bruyckere, Sculpture Ongoing Egon Schiele n

THE MUSEUM ISSUE 57

Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Library Cryder Bankes, Leslie-Lohman Librarian

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Library is a non-lending research library with a focus on LGBTQ art and artists and located within the Museum walls. One of the largest collections of art books and other research material on the topic, it is used by the staff, as well as scholars, curators, and others who regularly visit to conduct research. The library currently holds over 2,000 books, many rare or unique. Also in the holdings are over 300 monographs as well as exhibition catalogs, handmade books, theses, and auction catalogues. It contains hundreds of periodicals—such as the classic physique magazines—and a growing collection of gay and lesbian ephemera (for example, early bath club membership cards and event advertisements). The library continues to grow at a tremendous rate, with two recent large donations and many generous individual contributions by artists and benefactors.

The Museum library also purchases important and unique books on artists and art when the opportunity arises. In 2015, David Sprigle, who has published more than eight books of his photographs as well as books and publications by other photographers through his FotoFactory Press, made a significant donation of several hundred books. Included in the donation were many rare and unique books, such as those covering the work of Bruce Weber and Peter Hujar. Also included were dozens of booklets, calendars, and other printed material. Additionally, early in 2016 James Saslow presented the Museum with a large donation of 175 books from his personal research library collected over his career as an author and distinguished professor at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Saslow’s focus was the Italian Renaissance and Baroque period, with special interests in gender and sexuality

in art, and the visual aspects of the theater. This donation has greatly strengthened the library in these areas. Recent individual additions include gifts from Charles Leslie, Earl Carlile, Barry Steely, Daniel Kitchen, from artists Dmitri Yeros, Jessica Yatrofsky, Alex Geana, and John Arsenault, and from the estate of Ted Lippincott. The library specifically wishes to expand its holdings of lesbian, transgender, and gender-fluid artist subject matter. There are also several gaps in the historical physique periodical collection we wish to fill. To find out more about our wish list, to make a donation, or to inquire about doing research in the library, please contact the Museum. n ........................................................................................................................

Cryder Bankes has been the volunteer librarian of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Library since 2008. Bankes has a master’s degree in library science from Pratt Institute. He is the manager of library services for CBS News, a professional organist, and a choir director.

(top left to right) Fizeek Art Quarterly, No. 11, Fall 1964 (Washington, DC: Fizeek Enterprises). Gift from Charles W. Leslie. Vintage male physique magazine.

Shufly, by Bruce Weber (New York: Little Bear, 2000). Gift from David A. Sprigle. Rare book. Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography, by Jennifer Blessing, et al. (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1997). Gift from James M. Saslow. (bottom left to right) Muse: Mickalene Thomas, Photographs (Aperture, 2015). Museum purchase.

Transfigure, by Leon Mostovoy, Limited edition artist book, 2016. Museum purchase. Zonen, by Esaias Baitel (Stockholm: Bokomotiv, 1982). Gift of David A. Sprigle. Documentary photography and essays on neo-Nazism in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers in the 1970s.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

THE COLLECTION ISSUE 57

The Ever-Expanding Leslie-Lohman Collection The collection now encompasses over 30,000 objects. In 2015 we received more than 3,700 objects for the collection worth more than $1.5 million, mostly from individual artists and generous collectors. The Collections Department led by Wayne Snellen, Deputy Director for Collections, and Branden Wallace, Collections Manager, is aided by many volunteers and interns. They diligently catalog, secure missing ownership documentation, update artists’ biographies, and photograph our ever-expanding collection. If you are interested in volunteering in the Collections Department to assist with this work, please contact either Wayne Snellen or Branden Wallace. No experience is necessary. The Accessions Committee, chaired by board member Robert W Richards, reviews the collection’s acquisitions and determines which work will be added to the permanent collection that now has a total of 1,630 objects. Here are some recent new additions to the collection. Without the support of our donors, we would not be able to continue to build the collection. See the back cover for our new initiative the Hunter O’Hanian Diversity Acquisition Fund. n

(above) Kay Tobin, Barbara Gittings and Isabel Miller Kissing at the ‟Hug a Homosexual” Booth, ALA, 1971/2016, Digital photographic print, 7.5 x 9.5 in. Museum purchase. (far left) Basil Clavering and John Parkhurst, Untitled, 1954/2015, Color digital print, 16 x 12 in. Gift of Robert Lavis and Michael Carnes. (left) Charles S. Tillman Jr., Delilah, n.d., Color photograph, 16 x 12 in. Gift of the Doan Family Foundation.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

THE COLLECTION ISSUE 57

(clockwise from top left) Marc Pelletier, Lost History, 2015, Collage, 18 x 24 in. Gift of the artist. Claus Laus, Motherfucker, 2011, Embroidery on fabric with wadding, 39 x 39 x 78 in. Gift of the artist. Mark Younkle, Untitled, n.d., Collage on paper, 11 x 8.5. Gift of Steve Muller. Craig Dietz, Untitled (Three Women Body Builders), n.d., Cibachrome, 11 x 14 in. Gift of the Doan Family Foundation. Wayne Douglas Quinn, Untitled, 1978, Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 in. Gift of Roy R. Eddy.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

EDUCATION ISSUE 57

Educational Programming at the Museum Em Miller, Leslie-Lohman Museum Education Coordinator “We are all mythologists of the self.” —Amelia Jones

The Leslie-Lohman Speakers Series concluded the spring season with talks by artists Leon Mostovoy, Sophia Wallace, and art historian Amelia Jones. The presenters shared perspectives on their queer interests and histories and highlighted the ways personal stories influence art as a tool for social engagement. The Speakers Series creates opportunities for learning and dialogue between artists and our expanding audience; our spring presenters generously upheld this goal. Artist Leon Mostovoy began his Transfigure talk by taking his audience back to the beginning with On Our Backs magazine for which he created erotic images during the 1980s. He then shared

an earlier photographic series that explored the struggles and triumphs of women as they strive for strength and independence living outside the parameters of hetero-normative expectations. The audience was also invited to explore Mostovoy’s most recent endeavor, Transfigure Project, by accessing the website transfigureproject.com. The artist’s goal for the project, in which participation occurs through a forum of organic topics and questions, plus videos and a virtual flipbook of trans-identified bodies, is to connect trans communities regardless of locale. Mostovoy’s lecture was followed by his Transfigure exhibition at the Prince Street Project Space. In March, Amelia Jones of the Roski School of Art and Design, USC spoke to more than 100 rapt audience members. Jones shared her paper,

(right) Ulay, S/He series, 1974. “Autopolaroid” (far right) Leon Mostovoy, Annie Sprinkle. 1990. Courtesy of the artist.

‟‛Individual Mythologist’: Vulnerability, Generosity, and Relationality in Ulay’s Queer Feminist SelfImaging,” which explored the performance and performative self-imaging practice of the German artist Ulay, who has lived and worked in Amsterdam and Ljubljana since the late 1960s. Jones discussed the qualities of generosity, vulnerability, and relationality as having queer feminist effects (and affects) and asserted: “To enact this vulnerability through repetitive rupturings of flesh, openings to otherness, self-enactments across gender, sex, and class signifiers is perhaps beyond what the world can comfortably accommodate. Ulay asks us, nonetheless, to try.” 1 By exemplifying Ulay, Jones offered that our otherness in the world actually empowers us to be our own creators. Finally, Sophia Wallace talked on her experiences with gender and sexuality through her photographic and conceptual projects over the years to a crowd of 70 (mostly first-time visitors to the Museum). Focused on how otherness is constructed visually on the gendered, sexualized, racialized body, Wallace’s timeline of work demonstrated the increasing political and interactive nature of her art—from earlier journalistic photographs of the queer community (that were often misinterpreted or dismissed) to intimate self-portraits of Wallace and her lover, and on to laser-cut clitoral street-art stencils. Wallace talked at length about her ongoing project, CLITERACY, which has “changed her life,” and the way she makes art; there is a more intense focus on using art as a tool for unlearning, education, and activism. Video recordings of Speakers Series events can be viewed on the Leslie-Lohman Museum Vimeo page (vimeo.com/leslielohman/videos). The Speakers Series will resume this fall with another exciting schedule of talks. Funding for this series has been received in part from the generous support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. n ........................................................................................................................

(above) Sophia Wallace, DEMOCRACY WITHOUT CLITERACY PHALLUSY, Natural Law No. 57. 2013, 2013, Vinyl, billboard, 10.6 x 35 feet. On view November 11-25, 2013, on I-25 Southbound near the mile marker 247.2, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Courtesy of the artist. (right) Sophia Wallace, Clit Thunder, 2015. Chipboard laser cut stencil. Courtesy of the artist.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

Em Miller is the Education Coordinator at the LeslieLohman Museum and also works as a coach and training and administrative coordinator for Visual Thinking Strategies. Em recently graduated from Pratt Institute with a master’s degree in arts & cultural management. ........................................................................................................................

“ ‛Individual Mythologist’: Vulnerability, Generosity, and Relationality in Ulay’s Self Imaging,” Stedelijk Studies, No.3. “The Place of Performance,” ed. Sophie Berrebi and Hendrik Folkerts (2016). Available online at: stedelijkstudies.com/ journal/individualmythologist-jones. 1

WOOSTER STREET WINDOW GALLERY ISSUE 57

Legend in My Living Room Photographic Portraits by Jasper Briggs May 15 — August 12, 2016

(left) Jasper Briggs, Legend in My Living Room: Nora-Ann, 2016, Archival pigment print, 26 x 40 in. Courtesy the artist. (right) Jasper Briggs, Legend in My Living Room: George Stewart, 2016, Archival pigment print, 26 x 40 in. Courtesy the artist.

Legend in My Living Room

features specially commissioned photographic portraits of LGBTQ older adults in their home environments by Magnum Foundation Fellow Jasper Briggs. The portraits of six subjects (ages 56-84) prominently displayed in the Wooster Street Windows Gallery will reflect personal stories of struggle, triumph, and perseverance. A partnership with the Schomburg Center’s In the Life Archive (ITLA), the project highlights the history, lives, and contributions of the black LGBTQ community through oral history recordings and photographs. The project is co-curated by Steven G. Fullwood, Schomburg Center Associate Curator of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division and founder of ITLA, and Peter “Souleo” Wright, Program Coordinator of SAGE Center Harlem and cultural tastemaker. Jasper Briggs is a documentary photographer capturing images that reflect the human condition. In 2015 he was selected to be a Magnum Foundation Fellow. For his project, Briggs photographed LGBTQ older adults from SAGE. Briggs is an alumnus of the International Center of Photography’s documentary practice and visual journalism program. He lives and works in NY.

“Too often the experiences of black LGBTQ individuals are erased out of history,” says Fullwood. “With this project we aim to create greater visibility for this community by empowering them to take control of their narrative and public representation.” SAGE is committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion in providing services to its constituents and in celebrating their lives. “The ‘legends’ spotlighted in this project represent the wonderful array of individuals we have at SAGE”, says co-curator Wright. “They have contributed to the advancement of LGBTQ rights in ways both measurable and immeasurable, from serving in the military to being activists on the front lines to using their creative talents to inspire others. The six individuals photographed are: Nora-Ann Thompson, age 66, has served over 30 years in health and social services, focusing on mental health advocacy. Identifying as a lesbian at the age of 45, she remains a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights and spirituality and sexuality within the LGBTQ community. Shelly Montrose, age 59, covered the NYC arts/culture scene for the lesbian publication Women News in the 1980s. Through her work, Montrose contributed to increasing the visibility and representations of women in the LGBTQ community.

Beau McCall, age 59, had a career in wearable art and now focuses solely on creating visual art. His work is in the collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. For the Cyndi Lauper True Colors Residence in Harlem, he created a work highlighting LGBTQ youth homelessness. George Stewart, age 84, served in the U.S. Army and was a hospital aide during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. He is an out LGBTQ spokesperson. Tina Mo´et, age 60, was a hostess and entertainer at Sally’s Hideaway in the 1980s and became a mentor to trans people. Mo´et continues to perform at local LGBTQ centers and other venues. Alex Gilliam, age 56, is a trans and labor rights activist. In the 1980s he advocated for organized labor and increased representation of LGBTQ people within the U.S. Post Office. He is an active member of Black Transmen Inc. (BTMI), which focuses on acknowledgment, social advocacy, and empowerment. Selected participants have partnered with Pride Toastmasters to create brief speeches inspired by their oral histories, which are available for listening at the Schomburg Center’s In the Life Archive. n

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

OUTSIDE OUR WALLS ISSUE 57

Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today Spritmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 25, 2015 — Apr. 3, 2016 Rick Herron, Co-Curator

Twenty-five years after Haring’s death, my co-curator Bill Arning and I organized Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today. By always being one hundred percent himself, Haring significantly influenced the way many contemporary artists conceive of what is possible in their own careers. Now a full generation after Haring’s death, we begin to see how the rays radiating from his crawling babies reverberate throughout the contemporary art landscape in exciting and unexpected ways. The first generation of Haring’s powerful babies is all grown up. Including recent works, live performances, and several commissions, the exhibition brought together 21 contemporary artists—a diverse group of some of the most exciting contemporary artists making art across the United States and Europe—plus five works by Keith Haring. During our research, we identified five distinct ways in which Haring worked, and we selected artists whose practices exemplify the innovation and veracity Haring is known for. The works we chose for the show are not always those that might look the most like Haring’s; rather, they give shape to brand-new ways of making art that became possible after Haring’s intrepid trailblazing. Our first focus was on “fun.” One of Haring’s favorite projects was a mural he painted for the New York nightclub Palladium. Whether he was in Europe or Japan, Haring would come back to New York in time to dance on Saturday night. When he first moved to New York, his social network developed not at his college, the School of Visual Arts, but at Club 57, a church basement turned underground experimental performance-art bar on St. Mark’s Place. Haring’s open embrace of humor, play, dance, and nightlife set him apart from his artistic peers. Today, museums recognize the importance of documenting and contextualizing social practice. The artists in Powerful Babies play in bands, self-publish zines, DJ at parties, sell Moroccan rugs out of their studios, design T-shirts, direct music videos, and compose minimalist folk operas. Like Haring, these artists recognize the boundless potential of remaining open to life and the power of saying “yes.” Our next area of focus was a look at the ways Haring’s hand can still be felt in contemporary art, in his challenging, ignoring, and reinvention of formal conventions. Space is flat, colors are bright, gesture is ever-present. Haring’s white chalk line drawings

on the black paper covering ads in the subway were some of his first public exposure. Reminiscently, Klara Lid´en wheat-pastes fresh white paper over concert bills in every major city in a defiant act of erasure/ addition. Katherine Bernhardt’s references the street and the subway, and Haring’s playful gesture in her huge, flat paintings of litter—cigarette butts, pretzels, pizza. Again, gesture is exemplified in Michael Alan’s fine line flittering around a page like an endless, nervous ribbon. Scooter LaForge’s expressionistic paintings are a cavalcade of contemporary life from the Tin Man to auto-fellating men. Haring painted directly on the bodies of Bill T. Jones and Grace Jones, bringing painting to life. Equally, Tad Beck asks choreographers to dance right on top of photos of themselves dancing; acts of simultaneous creation and destruction. Next, we were very inspired by Haring’s commitment to transparency and honesty about issues related to health and wellness. Well before he was diagnosed with HIV, Haring, in his personal life and his art alike, was a vocal advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS. He made posters, paintings, and T-shirts about safer-sex practices and the dangers of drug use. In his 1989 Rolling Stone interview, Haring spoke openly about living with AIDS at a time when stigma about HIV/AIDS was at its worst. In our exhibition, artists use social media, performances, exhibitions, and artist-made books to deal with health issues like clinical depression, anxiety, cancer, nerve and spinal damage, and deep vein thrombosis in a way that is cathartic, honest, and healing. By remaining authentic to themselves, these artists use art to connect with others who’ve experienced chronic illness and personal health setbacks in a way that is personal yet universally understood. In addition to making paintings and posters for ACT UP, National Gay Rights Advocates, the AIDS Hotline, the Gay and Lesbian Center, and many more groups, Haring was on the streets marching in protests. Erasing the distinction between art and activism was one of Haring’s most important contributions to art discourse. Three of the six works by Haring in the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection are specifically about safer sex and HIV/AIDS. In his paintings, his collaborative partnerships, and his high-profile presence in the media, Haring also advocated on behalf of environmental issues, campaigns against nuclear proliferation, the anti-apartheid movement, victims of police brutality, world peace efforts, and, very frequently, children. Unfortunately, most of those issues are still as critical to society today as they

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

were when Haring was making art about them. The artists in our exhibition also make art about issues like the crisis of violence towards trans people and people of color, the needs of long-term survivors of AIDS, gender as a construction, and legislation and social violence against women’s bodies. Whether their activism is delivered in the form of a goth rave in Mexico, a poetry reading, a downloadable mixtape, or a breast-shaped pin~ata, the artists in our exhibition understand that didacticism doesn’t necessarily have to be divorced from artmaking. Finally, children were one of Haring’s greatest sources of motivation and happiness. We easily recognize Haring’s sincerity, sense of innocence, and uninhibited imagination as being childlike. He frequently collaborated with hundreds of kids at a time to paint murals all over the world. Some of his greatest artistic satisfaction came from visiting sick kids, and some of his best-known public works were done for children’s hospitals. The artists in Powerful Babies are examples of how the art of Haring’s generation instructed and inspired emerging art today. In turn, many of these artists create projects for, with, and about kids. Jaimie Warren’s ongoing project, Whoop Dee Doo, is an intensive weeks-long workshop with teens to develop free, kid-friendly theater programs. Thedra Cullar-Ledford runs an art camp for kids out of her own house. Recently, Joakim Ojanen painted a scene viewed during a months-long motorcycle journey through Central and East Asia: A little boy in a head-to-toe Spider-Man costume rides his training wheels across the grassy Mongolian plateau straight towards the viewer. There isn’t a flying saucer in sight, but there’s no mistaking it: this is a powerful baby indeed. Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’ Impact on Artists Today was on view at Spritmuseum, in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 25, 2015-Apr. 3, 2016. The 21 contemporary artists represented were: Michael Alan, Tad Beck, Katherine Bernhardt, Thedra Cullar-Ledford, Raul de Nieves, Lori Ellison, Steven Evans, Allen Grubesic, Trenton Doyle Hancock, John Hanning, Jeanette Hayes, Juliana Huxtable, Misaki Kawai, Scooter LaForge , M. Lamar, Klara Lid´en, Kristina Matousch, J. Morrison, Joakim Ojanen, Przemek Pyszczek, and Alexander Tovborg. Five works by Keith Haring were also on view. n .................................................................................................................................

Rick Herron is an independent curator, artist, and museum worker. Currently he is the Senior Manager of Visitor Services at New Museum and, in 2014, he curated the inaugural Queer/ Art/Mentorship Annual Exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Prince Street Project Space.

OUTSIDE OUR WALLS ISSUE 57

(above top to bottom) Installation view Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today, 2015. (hanging) Misaki Kawai, (on walls) Keith Haring, (on table) Lori Ellison, (along floor) Steven Evans. Photo by Rick Herron. (right top to bottom) Installation view Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today, 2015. (left to right) James Morrison with his T shirt, Rick Herron wearing Scooter LaForge custom suit, John Hanning with his poster, and Bill Arning, (along floor) text work by Steven Evans. Photo by Rick Herron. Untitiled live performance by James Morrison (left) with Danny Letton (center) at the opening of Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today, 2015. Photo by Rick Herron. Installation view of the pop-up store Powerful Babies: Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today, 2015. Thedra Cullar-Ledford making new tit tray paintings on site at Spritmuseum. Photo by Rick Herron.

The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 57 ● SUMMER 2016

Hunter O’Hanian Diversity Acquisition Fund Acquiring New Works by Female and Trans Artists for the Leslie-Lohman Museum Collection

To mark his four years as the Museum’s first director, the Board of Trustees has created the Hunter O’Hanian Diversity Acquisition Fund to mark his contributions to the Museum. Recognizing Hunter’s leadership in advocating for a gender balance in the Museum’s exhibitions and collection, the fund is designed to increase the number of works by female and transgender artists in the Museum’s collection. Presently, only 13% of the artists the Museum’s permanent collection are female or transgender. With the creation of this fund, the Museum will acquire high quality works to increase that percentage further. Under the direction of the Museum’s Collections Committee, funds donated will be used to purchase work by artists such as these, along with many others: Alison Bechdel

Chitra Ganesh

Justin Vivian Bond

K8 Hardy

Romaine Brooks

Holly Hughes

AK Burns

Zoe Leonard

Heather Cassils

Amos Mack

Claude Cahoon

Agnes Martin

Judy Chicago

Julie Merhetu

Candy Darling

Kate Millet

Vaginal Davis

Carrie Moyer

Zachary Drucker

Alice O’Malley

Angela Dufresne

Genesis Greyer P-Orridge

Nicole Eisenman

L.J. Roberts

Joy Episalla

Joan Snyder

Karen Finley

Gail Thacker

Eve Fowler

Sophia Wallace

Join us in this effort. All gifts are fully tax-deductible. Contact Interim Museum Director Meryl Allison to make a donation today. Meryl@ Leslielohman.org 212-431- 2609 leslielohman.org

(top) Cassils and Robin Black, Advertisement: Homage to Benglis, Cuts a Traditional Sculpture, 2011, Color photograph, 40 x 30 in. Courtesy Cassils. Chitra Ganesh, Atlas, 2013, Archival chromogenic print, 70 x 52 in. Courtesy of the artist.