From Gluck to Frida Kahlo, it’s time for queer artists from the past to receive the appreciation they deserve
BY BETHIA WYBORN, IMAGE BY CREATIVE COMMONS
I’ve always found comfort seeing past LGBTQIA+ folk captured within oil paints or sculptures. It’s a reminder that we have always existed, our rich history immortalised by queer artists who sometimes risked everything to create revolutionary pieces that could have been scandalous at the time.
I remember sitting in art class in year nine and marvelling at a Victorian painting of Sappho and Erinna by Simeon Soloman. Under the fluorescent lights of a stuffy classroom, it was the first time I had seen a historic WLW couple. I found solace about my own sexuality and saw that sapphic love can be as beautiful as the couple depicted.
It’s the small moments like this that can have a big impact on us, as we discover who we are and why being queer should be celebrated and expressed.
That’s why LGBT+ History Month is so important. It’s time for queer artists from the past to receive the appreciation they deserve, not only from the queer community, but from everyone.
Like many other fields of research, the study of art history has not always paid attention to the artists who are not white, gender conforming or straight. But with little pockets of queer art historians popping up across the globe, this blip will hopefully be eradicated.
As a medievalist, Baylee Woodley (they/them) spent their masters at the University of Victoria fascinated with paintings and miniature models of queer couples and figures. While battling through a dissertation and long stints in the library, there was one piece of art that really stuck out to them.
“It was this painting from the 15th century that really moved me,” Baylee explains. “I was so excited to see this beautiful image of two women getting married by a priest. The whole atmosphere of the painting was so accepting, it was just exceptional. Because a lot of Christian art and text at the time had queer elements, such as monks describing themselves as ‘brides of Christ’ or Jesus being painted with a vagina on his rib, gender fluidity and different sexualities were accepted in artwork.”
Baylee continued their study of queer art history to a PHD level and now runs a website to create accessible, queer-centered art histories and build a community among LGBTQIA artists. They explain that despite loving academia, it was important to create a space where queer art history is accessible to everyone.
“Art history has a reputation for being pretentious and elitist, so I made sure that the work I put out was the opposite of that. In terms of queer people surviving in the world, where the media is often against us, it would be wonderful if everyone could engage with queer visual culture and learn that our history is not just full of rich, white straight people.”
From Gluck to Frida Kahlo, we often see these famous faces online or in a gallery, but their queerness is scarcely mentioned or not mentioned at all. Although queerness is not the only aspect of our existence, when an artist explicitly creates imagery surrounding their identity, it can be seen as a disservice not to mention it.
Frida Kahlo is an example of a queer figure whose bisexuality can sometimes be reduced to the footnotes when describing her breathtaking work. With a colourful life reflected in her paintings, it is powerful to celebrate Frida’s bisexuality and gender non-conformity, alongside her art.
Someone who agrees that queerness is not typically emphasised in historical LGBTQIA artists is Holly James-Johnston (they/them), an Oxford University Scholar in Art History and educator for the V&A. They explain that the diversity of big name artists such as Frida can be diminished in order to make her “palatable for capitalist consumption”, with her face often seen on socks or tote bags.
Holly continues: “Institutional homophobia may be one of the reasons why the queerness of art history hasn’t been acknowledged, when to queer people it might be obvious. Also there may be well-meaning staff at museums or galleries. They may be unsure how to talk about queerness in the past, given that it’s often understood and expressed in different ways than today. As well as this, I believe there is queer gaze, or the age-old gaydar, which may not be recognised by certain people when examining the queerness of some arts.”
From Lili Elbe to Lenore Feeney, if we look close enough our experiences, triumphs, and struggles can all be shown in the art hung up in the galleries. As the landscape of art history continues to become more inclusive and museums start to create room on their displays for historic queer pioneers, Holly, Baylee and other trailblazers across the globe will continue to emphasise why queer art is vital.
As Holly puts it, “As queer people, we can learn about our own instincts, intuition and affinity from art. To be able to see yourself represented in the past through artwork fosters a very human feeling of belonging.”
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