Illustrating Homoerotica

Examples, in the visual fine arts, of male on male sexuality range through history from Ancient Greek vase art to Roman wine goblets (The Warren Cup), in decorative pottery, statues, friezes and paintings.

Several Italian Renaissance artists are thought to have been homosexual, and homoerotic appreciation of the male body has been identified by critics in works by the masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. More explicit sexual imagery occurred in the Mannerist and Tenebrist styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in artists such as Agnolo Bronzino, Michel Sweerts, Carlo Saraceni, Caravaggio and the lesser known Dutch painter, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem whose work The Massacre of the Innocents was described by The New York Times Style Magazine as work featuring “Powerfully muscled backs, piston thighs, meaty buttocks you could bounce quarters off for days,” describing his art as “ Totally Homoerotic”.

Moving in to the 20th Cenhury American advertising used illustrators to sell their products and there was no one more influential than J.C. Leyendecker.

Leyendecker was the pre-eminent illustrator of the early twentieth century, painting more than 400 magazine covers and hundreds of advertising images for diverse clients including Cluett, Peabody & Co. (Arrow Shirts), Interwoven Socks, and the US military.

Charles A. Beach

His paintings are iconic and instantly recognisable even now, a century after he first came to prominence. Leyendecker, who used his lover, Charles A. Beach, as the subject of most of his illustrations, was instrumental in defining the image of the all-American male. His advertising campaigns featured men whose interest seemed to be more interested in other men than any women accompanying the advert or illustration. In the early part of the 20th Century, he produced iconic illustrations and adverts, the Arrow collar ads and Football Hero are perfect examples. With the outbreak of World War II recruiting posters and the now famous towel adverts have become iconic examples of Leyendecker’s homoerotic art.

In the mid 20th Century the super-hero comics emerged and it turns out that all of those barely-concealed homo subplots in your favourite comics were no accident aside form the perfectly chiselled bodies they sported as they flew around the world saving those in distress! The Comics Code Authority forbade any explicit mention of homosexuality in the comics they controlled until 1989, but that just forced our dashing homo heroes to find

more creative ways to reveal themselves. DC and Marvel’s artists filled our young minds with visions of muscle packed into spandex with older guys who fought crime, and saved the world, and boys the world over couldn’t get enough of them.

Most famously, Batman epitomized the sublimated gay comic theme by introducing Robin the Boy Wonder in the ‘50s as Bruce Wayne’s young “ward.” Robin not only lived with Bruce but slept in the same bed with him. Once that image was introduced, almost any crime-fighting words put in their mouths became loaded with sexual innuendo. So much so that the series was attacked by psychologist Fredric Wertham as having an “atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures.” Sometimes the writers and illustrators employed irony. Check out the rampant use of changeling storylines in the comic world that made gay sex more of a transsexual phenomenon-something the industry was oddly more comfortable with than outright homosexuality.

The later part of the century saw the extreme homoertic art of Tom of Finland emerge in tandem with the gay liberation movements in the USA and Europe and the popularity of gay subcultures like the leather scene. Finnish-born Touko Laaksonen spent much of his youth obsessing over the sweaty laborers of his homeland and after being conscripted into the army in the Second World War, where he encountered hardened fighters, sealed the archetype deep into his psyche. By the 1970’s he was exhibiting his work as Tom of Finland and was able to quit his job to focus solely on his now famous illustrations. Combining sexual fantasy with a kind of hyperrealism that stretched the limits of the possible almost to the breaking point, he resonated deeply with an emerging generation of gay men searching for a new homosexual ideal.

“These are the characters and fantasies gay men grew up with, so they come to me because I help them express that,” notes current comic artist Iceman Blue. “Not only that, gay men, much like anyone else, love admiring perfect specimens, and I can provide them with my own style of unflawed male beauty.”

Clearly, erotic illustration has taken twists and turns throughout its history. But the quest for perfection and the desire to explore new worlds of fun and pleasure remain consistent.

From the earliest times the desire with portraying males as a form of beauty has persisted despite laws, objections and rules from homophobic religious and moral groups and individuals.

Source: www.noizemag.com