It’s all over for homophobia.
“When gay-bashing is the preserve of mealy-mouthed euphemism, its death knell has sounded,” says Zoe Williams. We can but hope. See this earlier story for further details.
The art of José Hernández
XII Festival de Almagro (1989).
Dura el Tránsito (1981).
José Hernández Spanish painter and engraver.
Update: José Hernandez at Velly.org.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The fantastic art archive
• The etching and engraving archive
Czanara’s Hermaphrodite Angel
More obscure art, only now we’re talking really obscure. This remarkable picture, The Hermaphrodite-Angel of Peladan by Czanara, turned up in the archives of Russ Kick’s seemingly abandoned Rare Erotica blog. “Czanara” was one Raymond Carrance (1921–?), a gay artist who I haven’t come across before and who seems to be completely absent not only from my library, but from most of the web. A great shame, if there’s more of his work like this I want to see it.
The “Peladan” of the title might be a reference to Sâr Péladan, founder of the Catholic Order of the Rose and the Cross in fin de siècle Paris, and guru to a number of significant Symbolist painters, including the brilliant Jean Delville. Hermaphroditism and androgyny were important themes for Péladan who declared, in an outburst typical of the period, “the androgyne, is the plastic ideal!” Czanara’s picture is certainly Symbolist in its details—those multiplied wings and hippogriffs—even if its intent is most likely a result of mundane pornographic imperatives.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
• The fantastic art archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Angels 4: Fallen angels
The bestsellers that readers don’t finish
The bestsellers that readers don’t finish.
Unpickupable.
The Masks of Medusa
We had Sartorio’s Gorgon and the Heroes yesterday so here’s some Medusas to continue the theme. Art history, especially in the nineteenth century, is full of Medusa portraits; these are some of the better ones.
Medusa by Caravaggio (1598-1599).
Head of Medusa by Peter Paul Rubens (1617).