Brit writer/curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley is the co-author of an excellent new book that has just arrived in Queerguru’s in-tray. Queer Art is a commanding compendium of LGBTQIA+ art that highlights its ongoing resilience from the 19th century to the present day, and is essential reading for everyone. Published last year by Thames and Hudson, it spans generations and geographies, and with its carefully curated selection of practitioners its hard to put down. It’s a rich picture of LGBTQIA+ visual culture, underscoring the complexity of lived experience and cutting through the basic understanding of the subject that seeks to measure ‘queerness’ against overt homoeroticism and proven homosexuality.
From liberation to intersectionality, reclamation to futurism, four thematic chapters unpack the key concerns of queer art as they relate to the work of artists such as Keith Haring, Bhupen Khakhar, Hélio Oiticica, Catherine Opie, Lotte Laserstein and Xiyadie. By exploring the notion of ‘queer art’ through the lens of both historical figures and contemporary practitioners, Queer Art adopts a dual focus, traversing the past and present to reflect on covert histories whilst imagining radical futures in which art not only reflects but shapes social norms.
The fact that Miss Rolls-Bentley is not a member of any luxury car company (i.e., she renamed herself as a joke that stuck) but is a member of the Sisters of the Sanitary Cloth a London-based/ coven and support group composed of 13 LGBTQ+ women and non-binary professionals, means we would NOT dare to criticize her in any way.
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