Queerguru’s newest London-based contributor Ris Fatah has had a very busy week.  After reviewing Paulo Regos’ magnificent retrospective at Tate Britain he hot-footed to the New Projects Gallery in the East End for a startling new discovery 

Brit artist Jonny Green’s fascination with gender politics has resulted in an incredible re-imagination of the world of John Singer Sargeant the  American expatriate artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation“.  Green’s work is so totally stunning and visually captivating that you almost overlook for a moment the serious statement he is making.

Green told Queerguru that the project all started with the news from a Polish friend in 2020 that the Polish government had started to introduce draconian laws that designated ‘LGBT-free zones’.

He took three of Sargeant society portraits of women depicted resplendent in their finery and painted them as men. Each painting was then given a Polish name with a specific meaning Leonek- (Strong as a Lion), Ondrey (Manly) and Gerek (Ruler with a spear). It led him to develop further pieces for this exhibition.  Green said that the life of Sargent’s and his paintings in particular, with their implicit assumptions of the sitters’ privilege and wealth, completely fascinated him. The trappings of wealth, and the ephemera displayed around Sargent’s sitters speak clearly and broadly about the values of his time, and about the high society he wished to portray.

Green has chosen to look again now at the world and milieu inhabited by Sargent and his circle, at a time when gender pronouns and identity is being questioned again. In our current climate gender fluidity is more open, and more recognized, with many public figures declaring themselves to be somewhere on a spectrum that defies categorization, and where a new generation believes in acceptance and inclusion outside of traditional gender binaries.

Curious to know why we had never come across either Green or his work before is partly explained by the fact that after he graduated from the Royal College of Art, he promptly signed a recording deal with Atlantic Records in NYC.  Heb then spent the next ten years on tour as a “stinking rocker,” before finally hanging up his guitar and getting back to painting. He adds that he has shown his work widely in the UK and Europe and has paintings in public and private collections.

Green doesn’t identify as queer or straight and has always felt everything is fluid, gender and sexuality.

Jonny Green
Thu 09 Sep 2021 - Sat 30 Oct 2021
New Art Projects, London