Wilhelm von Gloeden – Page 2

Trunk (Jay Garvin) by James Bidgood (early 1960s).

The Male Gaze is an exhibition at the powerHouse Arena,
Brooklyn, NYC, from April 20th–May 27th, 2007.

Untitled by Raymond Carrance (aka Czanara) (1960–70).

Sullen burger boys meet the effete cognoscenti in The Male Gaze: a group show including over 20 artists whose cultural explosions have rocked foundations across the world. With work spanning over 100 years of bloodless revolution, The Male Gaze features contemporary artists and their classic antecedents reinventing themselves, their world, and their media in savvy, bawdy, dreamy, and terrifyingly new ways. Artists include Stephen Andrews, Gio Black Peter, James Bidgood, AA Bronson, Raymond Carrance, Robert Filippini, Andrew Harwood, Christian Holstad, Scott Hug and Michael Magnan, Brian Kenny, Bruce LaBruce, Qing Liu, Ryan McGinley, Futoshi Miyagi, Slava Mogutin, J. Morrison, Will Munro, Joe Ovelman, Paul P., Jack Pierson, Ezra Rubin, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Lionel Smartly, and Wilhelm Von Gloeden.

Two revisited portraits of John by Paul Mpagi Sepuya (2004).

• The NYT interviews some of the artists

powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street
Brooklyn
NY 11201

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive

Jean Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) was a Neo-Classical painter whose work tends to lack the sensuality of his master, Ingres, yet who managed to produce one picture at least which has been an inspiration to subsequent artists and photographers.

Jeune Homme Assis au Bord de la Mer (Young Man Sitting by the Seashore) was painted in 1836. The simplicity and directness of the rendering is probably intended to be reminiscent of Classical sculpture and the figures seen on Greek pottery and bas-reliefs. There’s nothing in Flandrin’s history to suggest a homoerotic intent but the picture has that effect nonetheless, and it’s to gay artists (and viewers) that the work has mostly appealed since, as can be seen below.

The first (?) copy, usually dated as being from 1900 although it may be earlier, and a very careful imitation of the original pose. Photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden specialised in Classical-themed gay erotica and gave his figure a Biblical allusion by titling the picture Cain. Gloeden’s follower, Gaetano d’Agata, produced his own version.