BOOK: Art & Queer Culture-Phaidon Publications

An expanded reissue of the 2013 LGBTQ fine art canon, “Art & Queer Culture” by Phaidon Publications, is an unprecedented survey of visual art and alternative sexualities from the late nineteenth century to the present. Beautifully illustrated and clearly written, this special edition has been updated to include the art and visual culture that has emerged since the publication of its first edition. A group of new contributors – themselves gay, lesbian, queer and trans – join the primary authors in emphasizing the global sweep of queer contemporary art and the newfound visibility of gender non-conforming artists. In a compact, reader-friendly format, this revised volume packs over 130 years of queer art history. “Art & Queer Culture” features work by famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe alongside that of AIDS activists, lesbian separatists, and pre-Stonewall photographers and scrapbook-keepers who did not regard themselves as artists at all. The volume traces a spectacular history of queer life and creativity in the modern age. Although the book proceeds in a chronological fashion, it does not propose a progressive narrative in which homosexuals become increasingly adept at negotiating the circumstances of censorship and overcoming the terms of stigma and invisibility. The importance of this book is as much in it’s existence as it is due to it’s contents. It’s an insight into a history and art that too many of us are unaware of, even as members of the LGBT community.– Dimitris Lempesis