tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38471261443097241032024-02-19T01:57:04.728-08:00The Celestial Homework ClubLiving Out Loud.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17318443789214234327noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847126144309724103.post-19369750323348746662013-06-09T08:52:00.000-07:002013-06-09T08:52:17.513-07:00The Sissy and The Thug<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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In preparation for the LGBT tour of Tate Britain (Sunday 30th June) I've been looking at some works by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Sargent is probably best known for his portraits of society ladies and dashingly distinguished men - he was the most lauded and sought-after portraitist of his day - and, as you can see from this self-portrait, a bit of a hipster who knew how to wear a hat. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRnTyGTfJbn3PrEJAvoudPdq4VRPYCB4tXHRqrZw1SQ9JON4NNQNrYtS5Zx_KQkQZJv8EibAp46ZDlO_Ck78Ta94am6xOk8qNkeBBWfQswmK84XdJsfEAG_E39O1CHrYVNdfjtNXKhYM/s1600/SargentSelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRnTyGTfJbn3PrEJAvoudPdq4VRPYCB4tXHRqrZw1SQ9JON4NNQNrYtS5Zx_KQkQZJv8EibAp46ZDlO_Ck78Ta94am6xOk8qNkeBBWfQswmK84XdJsfEAG_E39O1CHrYVNdfjtNXKhYM/s640/SargentSelf.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Self Portrait</i>, John Singer Sargent</td></tr>
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Sargent’s sexuality has been a matter of conjecture for many
years. He stayed a bachelor his whole life and had no children, whilst
remaining very secretive about his private affairs. He certainly hung out with
lots of openly gay men, as many artists of the time did, painting them as well
as socializing with them. Another painter, Jacques-Emile Blanche, declared
after Sargent’s death that his sex life had been ‘notorious’ and called Sargent
a ‘frenzied bugger’, though Blanche himself was one of the most notorious and
untrustworthy gossips in Paris. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkASjBON8OmDSKnIybxnfpJm1e0tFWS12beaIj5qGf5Zj5rLeDts3qB7JmmKfCRKcAx4j7y1Fee4tI9XwTkRKo6t77N9LYhrY0JjaucDuZubLoI73SWhgYtkbtQkUHUInOxIRjKl19XC0/s1600/Blanche1886.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkASjBON8OmDSKnIybxnfpJm1e0tFWS12beaIj5qGf5Zj5rLeDts3qB7JmmKfCRKcAx4j7y1Fee4tI9XwTkRKo6t77N9LYhrY0JjaucDuZubLoI73SWhgYtkbtQkUHUInOxIRjKl19XC0/s640/Blanche1886.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Jacques-Emile Blanche</i> (1886), Sargent</td></tr>
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Certainly, Sargent’s lesser-known but equally celebrated paintings and drawings of
male nudes seem to reveal a way of looking at men that eroticizes them, in
contrast to his paintings of women, which tend to represent an exotic
ideal of beauty. In his 1994 biography of Sargent, Trevor J. Fairbrother wrote:<br />
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'Sargent's art is the best "evidence" of his personality, and the homoeroticism of some portraits and many informal studies has been prudishly avoided by most scholars. If, indeed, Sargent balanced a public career with a repressed sexuality, his conflicted social-sexual identity may be a key to the successful tensions within his art... I propose that the visual emotional volatility of his work may have been shaped by his attraction to male beauty.'<br />
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It's also worth noting that Sargent thought of these male nudes as private work - he never exhibited them or showed them to anybody outside of a close circle during his lifetime - so it's possible to think of this as 'closeted' art.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdbkdoWA1xerhXYc6rl1BiP6MjyXRmD8HxKC3c_X6g24o2OXEiEpIpQFBWaQqWaBuxT74u6JFcN_Gkl-s19jZwH3aL0onappPA6t64jae4hHKwF_D7hekhzcG9F-8K8oW5MJBsN1_3F4/s1600/NudeStudyThomasMcKeller1917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdbkdoWA1xerhXYc6rl1BiP6MjyXRmD8HxKC3c_X6g24o2OXEiEpIpQFBWaQqWaBuxT74u6JFcN_Gkl-s19jZwH3aL0onappPA6t64jae4hHKwF_D7hekhzcG9F-8K8oW5MJBsN1_3F4/s640/NudeStudyThomasMcKeller1917.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nude Study of Thomas McKeller</i> (1917), Sargent</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZrSUoBbgY4QmJua9VUJanNpe68DkqNqwgU6CsUftDgNCODi-ikelobmEzFy4b-F_ulNRPIlsJWOiNqA48lFwrJxsfQAEwGvLRAGA8lPr5LpMGtnQxfhf474qK1nqfTs5CknTDHiEJQg/s1600/nicola-d-inverno-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZrSUoBbgY4QmJua9VUJanNpe68DkqNqwgU6CsUftDgNCODi-ikelobmEzFy4b-F_ulNRPIlsJWOiNqA48lFwrJxsfQAEwGvLRAGA8lPr5LpMGtnQxfhf474qK1nqfTs5CknTDHiEJQg/s400/nicola-d-inverno-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Study from a Nude Model</i> (after 1900)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S5b06U7TWFFnvgqjGzXk2HYAS5rgIzYqqBBsBmYs7J2eib7pvaxRqQQjdjD2mPAw44yZeHH4RF9NEdN_8rvm3BrwaCDmZQJDRzozI-6ENXugZc8uI5-4xOK4krzRsp9ztK1GKtwB_jE/s1600/Sargent,_John_Singer_(1856-1925)_-_Male_nudes_wrestling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S5b06U7TWFFnvgqjGzXk2HYAS5rgIzYqqBBsBmYs7J2eib7pvaxRqQQjdjD2mPAw44yZeHH4RF9NEdN_8rvm3BrwaCDmZQJDRzozI-6ENXugZc8uI5-4xOK4krzRsp9ztK1GKtwB_jE/s200/Sargent,_John_Singer_(1856-1925)_-_Male_nudes_wrestling.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Male Nudes Wrestling</i> (after 1900)</td></tr>
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Even the infamous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portrait
of Madame X</i> (1884) that so scandalized Parisian society that Sargent felt
moved to decamp permanently to London, whilst having a certain allure seems to
be more about charisma than sex. Sargent famously re-painted the strap of the dress that had fallen loosely down from her shoulder in an attempt to make the painting more 'respectable,' though it's subject, Madame Virginie Gautreau, was always meant to be shown, in my view, as sexually 'free' rather than sexually 'available.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Portrait of Madame X</i> (1884), Sargent</td></tr>
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Tate Britain’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portrait of W.G. Robertson</i> (1894) is, for me, a representation and celebration of the
sissy, with Sargent and Robertson collaborating to produce an image that is
both unashamedly effeminate and codified as queer. Robertson is posed in the
same full-length-with-a-twist-at-the-waist stance that many of Sargent’s female
subjects used, because he and they knew how this flattered the figure. The
dark, floor-length coat lengthens and slims the body, but also, I think, makes
Robertson appear more youthful. He was 28 when this picture was painted but
looks as if he’s playing dress-up in adult’s clothing. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwUJhieImv7oiMd1oKhp3Jk5uc84-iOgqBpW_ViuYmVbkGvteQFf4pgn50PTtksQDvfDbKzsYGltqwVL5FGJzTEnBrEHV5i8oL3yzlZvXNmhpOBmUXEMCqNEQdHORXPuFzshgtaDaPRg/s1600/SargentPortraitofW.G.Robertson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwUJhieImv7oiMd1oKhp3Jk5uc84-iOgqBpW_ViuYmVbkGvteQFf4pgn50PTtksQDvfDbKzsYGltqwVL5FGJzTEnBrEHV5i8oL3yzlZvXNmhpOBmUXEMCqNEQdHORXPuFzshgtaDaPRg/s640/SargentPortraitofW.G.Robertson.jpg" width="323" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Portrait of W.G. Robertson</i> (1894), John Singer Sargent</td></tr>
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The jade-handled cane is
not only camp and dandified, it’s a definite signal to those in the know that
Robertson is one of them/us (isn’t that handle and the way Robertson’s fingers
encircle it a bit, well…suggestive?) And where to start with the poodle lying
at Robertson’s feet – Mouton it was called – a delicate pink bow tying the hair
away from its eyes? Camp doesn’t begin to cover it…</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As a bit of a sissy I’m very drawn
to this portrait as a reflection of my own effeminacy. Of course, nowadays I
see nothing wrong with any of that, but I haven’t always felt that way about
myself. I had identified the sitter of this portrait as gay before I knew
anything about him or the signals contained within it, and it also
confirms for me the existence of an undoubtedly gay gaze in Sargent. It is
Robertson’s hand on the hip that particularly resonates. How many times have we
seen that gesture used to imply, represent, and accuse in relation to gay male sexuality? How many times in gay men's lives do we catch ourselves, stop ourselves, from executing it, and how often do we gleefully perform it? It’s not only the placing and positioning of the hand, it’s the hand itself –
long, delicate and pale – a distinctly ‘sensitive’ hand.</span></div>
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When I was thinking about all this I
immediately thought of another very different but equally stunning portrait in Tate Britain; <i>The First Lord De la Warr</i> (c1550), at one time attributed to Hans
Holbein but now labelled as by an ‘unknown painter of the British School.’ The picture below is of the painting before its recent restoration. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6ydVz2zfK0X9ohvXT0EKUk3_MNafD6HQEBN-igbeJUFNhHwFOL4aSw5jp5KKeyZXFJ3HtSHUKTZ2rXRDL1Kqh5qwm05jmx4tKZku19egJdXXB0l43VpFLJLdsJBg6nXTT1gNwSQifHo/s1600/delaWarr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6ydVz2zfK0X9ohvXT0EKUk3_MNafD6HQEBN-igbeJUFNhHwFOL4aSw5jp5KKeyZXFJ3HtSHUKTZ2rXRDL1Kqh5qwm05jmx4tKZku19egJdXXB0l43VpFLJLdsJBg6nXTT1gNwSQifHo/s640/delaWarr.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The First Lord De la Warr</i> (c1550)</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">The identity of
the painting’s subject is also not totally certain but, as the title suggests,
it's</span> thought to be of William West, a Tudor nobleman who was known as ‘The Thug.’
West had been banned from court and from inheriting titles after he tried to
poison his uncle. He was pardoned later on and welcomed back into the fray. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAdR89cVgRNiecSDxxsHCknH6bmDrjgOY2vrgIm6dNyqvwDwCPcpl8XMNCMx0Le0tOMZ39GncqAzMYcfMD4b8uRzVZMyFUJIWg_RbQkxgYMMfXm_fZp0pc5z-Z73gzwYYzHC0aQNutYI/s1600/delawarefist.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAdR89cVgRNiecSDxxsHCknH6bmDrjgOY2vrgIm6dNyqvwDwCPcpl8XMNCMx0Le0tOMZ39GncqAzMYcfMD4b8uRzVZMyFUJIWg_RbQkxgYMMfXm_fZp0pc5z-Z73gzwYYzHC0aQNutYI/s1600/delawarefist.png" /></a></div>
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Like Robertson, de le Warr has his hand on his hip, but it couldn’t be more
different – clenched into a fist and placed forcefully, not languidly, against
his waist. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc55SmrIY8SrhA54CSHQ0ecvW1LQDP-C6jUlU6Z4hBRyzO-bJddFkSr9fvBfe29XehMkWuroIdm7SzlANf51-kTbFNoOmlSYpmCLsjXttzDYevsrmdchIh3fqIdu46BPuo-y0q34KSpn4/s1600/hand+detail.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc55SmrIY8SrhA54CSHQ0ecvW1LQDP-C6jUlU6Z4hBRyzO-bJddFkSr9fvBfe29XehMkWuroIdm7SzlANf51-kTbFNoOmlSYpmCLsjXttzDYevsrmdchIh3fqIdu46BPuo-y0q34KSpn4/s1600/hand+detail.png" /></a>Unlike Robertson his body faces straight ahead though like Robertson he is dressed
in black to emphasise his wealth and his fine (distinctly manly) figure and, unlike
many other Tudor portraits of young men, he’s all about strength not beauty. He’s
less of a Courtier than an Action Man, as his ruddy cheeks and knuckles testify.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The other hand is the same but different
too (hands really are a give away, aren't they? A student who couldn't remember my name once described me to a colleague as 'the one with the glad hands.' Note also the pinky ring on Jacques-Emile Blanche's little finger). The luxuriously beautiful gloves are scrunched so tightly against his sword
hilt that de la Warr clearly doesn’t care about spoiling them. Not for him
Robertson’s loosely teasing, tickling hold.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNrfnemkkwf_eRxil2cG5-zW7b3UhNXCbsCUQPw45J4GMgyFpUecsE3fG8GUk8g_RttU_-II-qfY1-QdUvVr-LfMh4lq6f0oLV3O5w-l8AzVQVGslzYegBpNb0iYV4WTLiybvgOtE234/s1600/cane+detail.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNrfnemkkwf_eRxil2cG5-zW7b3UhNXCbsCUQPw45J4GMgyFpUecsE3fG8GUk8g_RttU_-II-qfY1-QdUvVr-LfMh4lq6f0oLV3O5w-l8AzVQVGslzYegBpNb0iYV4WTLiybvgOtE234/s1600/cane+detail.png" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PvaGekc0Oa3PjcadiR6TgLfgJVx_IjgSGwkZkuUPXRUUmDnQz1S-zNU1GB3zVRNhybIfrI9Khs78ylhqQteZupqoSs_oXsM84ufGWPr4PuaeorfqPZWqgPffqxTbYI3GqlBs_HGLhHM/s1600/delaware+hand.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PvaGekc0Oa3PjcadiR6TgLfgJVx_IjgSGwkZkuUPXRUUmDnQz1S-zNU1GB3zVRNhybIfrI9Khs78ylhqQteZupqoSs_oXsM84ufGWPr4PuaeorfqPZWqgPffqxTbYI3GqlBs_HGLhHM/s200/delaware+hand.png" width="175" /></a></div>
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And if that cane handle is
suggestive then de la Warr’s codpiece is positively, shockingly inviting - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Look at me!</i> it shouts. Not only does it
protrude massively towards the viewer, the black velvet is slashed at the tip,
silk teased out at the crown to recreate the shape of de la Warr’s bell-end (sorry, there’s no other word for it).</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Seen together in this way both of these portraits
become about the sexual politics of gesture. The hands and stance in both
portraits are doing the same thing: producing an attitude of, and towards, the
body (and by extension the personality) of the subjects, one distinctly ‘masculine’,
the other stereotypically ‘feminine.’ In both cases it’s possible to look at
the men in the picture with the gay male gaze – perhaps more knowingly in the case of
Sargent’s picture of Robertson. In the portrayal of de le Warr, the painter
has produced a kind of Tudor Physique Pictorial – an invitation for men to look
at another man (because it’s not for women he’s showing off his cock), and to
feel admiration, intimidation and, yes, desire. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X8KDjKpRkoFoBNCqaBXP3Qwocj7aiPMXaqsAUCwQIPqaJUUWl38JF-g8haJxGecxLJ5gk40TUAgRR18_BsA6yx6hClg3jrajBUOAwVMb5sykFmkMR_2hX8phAU4jNIFk4qnNwglDlLI/s1600/John+Singer+Sargent_SelfPortrait_1906_The+Uffizi_DSC_3033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X8KDjKpRkoFoBNCqaBXP3Qwocj7aiPMXaqsAUCwQIPqaJUUWl38JF-g8haJxGecxLJ5gk40TUAgRR18_BsA6yx6hClg3jrajBUOAwVMb5sykFmkMR_2hX8phAU4jNIFk4qnNwglDlLI/s640/John+Singer+Sargent_SelfPortrait_1906_The+Uffizi_DSC_3033.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Self-Portrait</i> (1906), John Singer Sargent</td></tr>
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<!--EndFragment--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17318443789214234327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847126144309724103.post-24292017900490850632013-05-31T01:50:00.000-07:002013-05-31T16:17:50.534-07:00LGBTate<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Sunday 30<sup>th</sup> June my good friend, the poet and
art critic Cherry Smyth, and I will be leading an LGBT tour of the newly
unveiled re-hang at Tate Britain. We’re going to Queer the Collection and, believe, it’s not been difficult to find material to talk
about – in fact, the issue has been which artworks to leave out, such
are the riches on offer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXg3LllGLGtzh9YGB2ff1tyKX-Gl6_qyaptLr9mDRL-Uf-FrkQsQnD6Jj2V7cS27EjCCFUFAoGND5nb5VZw12pdGD9_Z2aoSavTBnhjOv2JPsg6XHORDVbN2EwcGZdkcGW5_dIvrIVZk/s1600/PeterBlakePortraitofDavidHockneyinaHollywoodSpanishInterior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXg3LllGLGtzh9YGB2ff1tyKX-Gl6_qyaptLr9mDRL-Uf-FrkQsQnD6Jj2V7cS27EjCCFUFAoGND5nb5VZw12pdGD9_Z2aoSavTBnhjOv2JPsg6XHORDVbN2EwcGZdkcGW5_dIvrIVZk/s640/PeterBlakePortraitofDavidHockneyinaHollywoodSpanishInterior.jpg" width="534" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Portrait of David Hockney in a Hollywood Spanish Interior </i>(1965), Peter Blake.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How important is it to offer up queer readings of large
public collections in this way? Do we even need to do it given that contemporary
audiences for art have surely seen it all, and most don’t much care about the
sexuality of an artist or their subject? Well, it’s surprising to me how often large art institutions gloss over gay relationships that are relevant to an artwork’s
conception, execution, or provenance, either choosing not to mention them at
all, or neutralizing relationships by referring to them as 'intimate friendships' or to lovers and partners as 'companions.' As Arts Editor of Polari Magazine I've also come across the same kind of unease in the commercial sector. It’s not hard to guess at the motivations for this – they’re the same as the
motivations in wider society for running scared of discussing sexuality – fears of offending people's religious and/or moral sensibilities or worries particularly around children asking awkward questions. It can dis-comfort people, un-settle
them, marginalize the artwork and the artist as a result – but these aren’t necessarily bad
things. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlb-WNgl2pgk9axnqhgDY2Xv24KWju5PyOmZxTvG5pEH3q2yjFMnRAsqIz0HiQJ_pi_X2hH7Kk9TkJS6mZ9jdCXfwrojebgFaoFJsyyl7jP93O2dEtyOKxZ0f-SoGTcpqXtF7FNYowMI/s1600/Leighton+AthleteWrestlingwithaPython.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlb-WNgl2pgk9axnqhgDY2Xv24KWju5PyOmZxTvG5pEH3q2yjFMnRAsqIz0HiQJ_pi_X2hH7Kk9TkJS6mZ9jdCXfwrojebgFaoFJsyyl7jP93O2dEtyOKxZ0f-SoGTcpqXtF7FNYowMI/s640/Leighton+AthleteWrestlingwithaPython.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>An Athlete Wrestling with a Python</i> (1877), Frederick, Lord Leighton.</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Even those institutions with a reputation for being more 'cutting edge,’ can indulge in the practice of placing artists
back in the closet. Recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York put on a
small exhibition entitled ‘Rauschenberg and Johns,’ using works from the 1950s
in their permanent collection to explore the relationship between the two great
American artists, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, describing them as being ‘in dialogue with each other.’ What
the show’s curator failed to mention was that the two men were lovers for over
six years during this time, even referring to them at one point as ‘friends.’
Johns and Rauschenberg were themselves coy about discussing their relationship
and you could argue that MOMA was really just respecting this, but art history
and art curators are not obliged to go along with the ‘authorized version’ of
an artist’s personal history. They don't do it elsewhere, so why should they here?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The complicated nature of John and Rauschenberg’s
relationship when discussing and contextualising their art is probably compounded by the fact that
neither they, nor their work, fit into a pre-established
stereotype of what ‘queer’ means in art. Young men showering in California,
that’s obviously queer, right? But Rauschenberg’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bed</i>,
his seminal work of 1955, is also queer, it's just that it doesn't immediately appear to be so, lacking the usual 'signals.' </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03hTicgZpT48sxSnECt6rBgyN1U06OcwrwbqdA15JdbRuFAP9TezPvRGkcHte6JQUXgfgZ94NpY_jwCpxg63Ak2UyUGWTWN0uF6oClnMn5SsWUHcZM3ZUJEjMnzUTzLlrD_OxJR2ffwg/s1600/RobertRauschenberg-Bed-1955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03hTicgZpT48sxSnECt6rBgyN1U06OcwrwbqdA15JdbRuFAP9TezPvRGkcHte6JQUXgfgZ94NpY_jwCpxg63Ak2UyUGWTWN0uF6oClnMn5SsWUHcZM3ZUJEjMnzUTzLlrD_OxJR2ffwg/s640/RobertRauschenberg-Bed-1955.jpg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bed</i> (1955), Robert Rauschenberg</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bed </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is queer in form, breaking through conventional bounds of representation when, in 1955, Rauschenberg apparently took his own bedding and stretched it across a wooden frame, in place of, and so becoming, a canvas. <i>Bed</i> also explicitly </span>references Rauschenberg’s two lovers, Cy Twombly and Jasper
Johns, the first with looped scribbles in pencil drawn on the pillow - a direct
reference to Twombly’s drawings - and the second with patches of bright paint on
the quilt that mirror the colours of Johns’ famous Target paintings.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1drpyh-iqyBDWg_QQYBmbSEmhv6CpkmYN-HMQSMFA3G8-f35CSO6-7UBD4NugN_PvwROFLelWnIPo78OjnnlFnjMOuFHGGe7lzaZI8c-ALcMh2G4_QpD5LApFiq2T3K8lyM60OMDMaA/s1600/8491246234_32b4dba1ee_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1drpyh-iqyBDWg_QQYBmbSEmhv6CpkmYN-HMQSMFA3G8-f35CSO6-7UBD4NugN_PvwROFLelWnIPo78OjnnlFnjMOuFHGGe7lzaZI8c-ALcMh2G4_QpD5LApFiq2T3K8lyM60OMDMaA/s640/8491246234_32b4dba1ee_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bed</i> (1955) Robert Rauschenberg (detail)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XGHtckK8xZw9FscafZECM8zE5OeH01V1MOBe9UGn5JBMtU6N1qJ-kwhcCJ3NhOGoxB7sr6A-NkIt1uFNwN9fhTo2LJfs7oxUI_scEPikzCDXq1Fny9vXF1mqNVAfULMQFvpG5kmxEcY/s1600/Cy+Twombly+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XGHtckK8xZw9FscafZECM8zE5OeH01V1MOBe9UGn5JBMtU6N1qJ-kwhcCJ3NhOGoxB7sr6A-NkIt1uFNwN9fhTo2LJfs7oxUI_scEPikzCDXq1Fny9vXF1mqNVAfULMQFvpG5kmxEcY/s640/Cy+Twombly+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Drawing</i>, Cy Twombly</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89BKgD0_-rxUpCy-V7QWQ_KDMTOXuFkl8FWyQ2Pqag6U1AMqcYVjdgwnmDKB-CQjJkFzajkirshcP3BizteAx6S-CpSPrRmG6dmhoVSV37OtGBvYy1M508dNXiHCxQHEomrvGqUv9wNA/s1600/target_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89BKgD0_-rxUpCy-V7QWQ_KDMTOXuFkl8FWyQ2Pqag6U1AMqcYVjdgwnmDKB-CQjJkFzajkirshcP3BizteAx6S-CpSPrRmG6dmhoVSV37OtGBvYy1M508dNXiHCxQHEomrvGqUv9wNA/s640/target_4.jpg" width="484" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Target with Four Faces</i> (1955), Jasper Johns</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">By incorporating such artists into the queer canon, you blow
open exactly what it means to categorize artists as queer and take it beyond the purely figurative, which is where the emphasis tends to be. But in order to do
that, the institution and its curators need to give the relevant biographical
information, just as they might tell you which
of Picasso’s mistresses appears in a particular painting. MOMA’s website gives
none of this information and you realize how far there is to go when even the biographical entry for Andy Warhol on the same MOMA website makes no reference at all to his sexuality, as if that wasn’t an intrinsic part
of his art, a large part of which was explicitly gay and given that Pop Art is, arguably, intrinsically queer.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-_eiItf0zc1nnB8UyJ0o8r9G-msYRQxYwxp8YGQF0bhp6jlyW31GaMGGBSMaKDOeyjvg7TdnLxvJEb5zeMlb223Z2Luc4oPIhmdcbDlx3rB8IsC0e64h1qNjqko2q1xYBda2wzNB3HE/s1600/johns_portrait_380x311.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-_eiItf0zc1nnB8UyJ0o8r9G-msYRQxYwxp8YGQF0bhp6jlyW31GaMGGBSMaKDOeyjvg7TdnLxvJEb5zeMlb223Z2Luc4oPIhmdcbDlx3rB8IsC0e64h1qNjqko2q1xYBda2wzNB3HE/s400/johns_portrait_380x311.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jasper Johns</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Could you imagine MOMA, or any other institution, failing to
mention an artist’s gender or ethnicity (if those things were not immediately obvious) when
that was a large part of their work’s thematic concerns? Rauschneberg’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bed</i> is considered an intimate portrait
of him, and so it is, but it is one in which Cy Twombly’s head shares his
pillow while Jasper Johns lays on the bedclothes – this shouldn’t be ignored
and neither can it be separated from the work. Rauschenberg himself said </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“painting relates to both art and
life…[and] I try to act in that gap between the two.”</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_46Xt8vpvOcZ_FM4BqLWG9XrwctzyJqg-qqNeUWcqOxsi_qjD92KtWT60uC_0eei5pb999QNTgauL4U1-baJ2j09hyug2tod6dLb5l29k5FpqLPpvk67vIsenzrhnL791jXrWseSh424/s400/13_rauschenberg_lgl.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Rauschenberg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheAU30Z6nagYf0OY0u75f_L875hD9Wmtea7zrKPmvJFjO6X0b-wKxY7W85JmfCw3r-UaJi7u7v9Dl-nSg1bRu9Yi6oLBNLVIsyux5us-ySnvB20OFxSh2TmMmLXGVaILhAq0w9zh4ce-Y/s1600/Cy-Twombly-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheAU30Z6nagYf0OY0u75f_L875hD9Wmtea7zrKPmvJFjO6X0b-wKxY7W85JmfCw3r-UaJi7u7v9Dl-nSg1bRu9Yi6oLBNLVIsyux5us-ySnvB20OFxSh2TmMmLXGVaILhAq0w9zh4ce-Y/s200/Cy-Twombly-007.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cy Twombly</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_46Xt8vpvOcZ_FM4BqLWG9XrwctzyJqg-qqNeUWcqOxsi_qjD92KtWT60uC_0eei5pb999QNTgauL4U1-baJ2j09hyug2tod6dLb5l29k5FpqLPpvk67vIsenzrhnL791jXrWseSh424/s1600/13_rauschenberg_lgl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Rauschenberg, Twombly and Johns all hung out in New York with that other A-List Avant-Garde gay couple John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and at times they even collaborated on performances and artwork. This gives me an excuse to include a video here of Rauschenberg talking about creating 'Automobile Tire Print' with Cage in 1953.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JIu5ViVWebSpAbtAG9Oa9cuQltLX1vkzBU1J6E907wKk6J6A0RKruT4q6AZfho4hS-oJX1rOhrE9CWMwJehlwuRQfSj3xrnD-ptBGEigc_Bj7_zuDYw32cIRE45DIF17xHX-Mzd8QQg/s1600/rauschenberg+1A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JIu5ViVWebSpAbtAG9Oa9cuQltLX1vkzBU1J6E907wKk6J6A0RKruT4q6AZfho4hS-oJX1rOhrE9CWMwJehlwuRQfSj3xrnD-ptBGEigc_Bj7_zuDYw32cIRE45DIF17xHX-Mzd8QQg/s400/rauschenberg+1A.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Cage, Merce Cunningham & Robert Rauschenberg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At Tate Britain they've
taken the decision to remove all but the minimum information about works on display from</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the
labels that sit alongside them and that’s a decision I support and which has
been carried out consistently across the collection. You can, of course, find
out any more information you’d like about a work or an artist on their
excellent website and at appears that Tate, at least, have not closeted any of
their artists. As Cherry and I prepare our talk I’ll be blogging occasionally
on the works we’re researching and may well talk about - works such as this one, John Singer Sargent's <i>Portrait of W.G.Robertson</i> from 1894 - and it would be great if you came along.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-p5wdSi92DC42GNVI5RtR4m4N8EMCpWsZq07nHaqZO-kWYHxtIEdDKUska_mxhIfqz1Zf2O3m3pTHIEfS_Z6UkAmpBwIyg2jHJu1kzXjDOo7VM9YGEdm53KI_ZNmr6yRVh-cDBNZnCs/s1600/SargentPortraitofW.G.Robertson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-p5wdSi92DC42GNVI5RtR4m4N8EMCpWsZq07nHaqZO-kWYHxtIEdDKUska_mxhIfqz1Zf2O3m3pTHIEfS_Z6UkAmpBwIyg2jHJu1kzXjDOo7VM9YGEdm53KI_ZNmr6yRVh-cDBNZnCs/s640/SargentPortraitofW.G.Robertson.jpg" width="324" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17318443789214234327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847126144309724103.post-3537109911612976532013-05-25T10:13:00.002-07:002013-05-31T16:18:08.143-07:00The Celestial Homework Club<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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This is my first blogpost, so, welcome to
The Celestial Homework Club. The blog’s name references Allen Ginsberg, a man
whose work and life I really admire and am inspired by. There’s a directness
and honesty in his poetry that’s like someone speaking right into your ear in
order to provoke and invite a conversation and that’s very much the spirit I’d
like this blog to invoke.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguF6tb3RQorFZiED7QJtYyeAzUEZJhbTTUX2zKY0iFQlGeNPCWhupamaUvCmc_N6WaXcWX61e3XT7SZvPAi_53WRauA_AJvgZKMMbrIiuykgBzMMgBl3Shmku9ioz1A0RAKqXtBKWaZ7o/s1600/0156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguF6tb3RQorFZiED7QJtYyeAzUEZJhbTTUX2zKY0iFQlGeNPCWhupamaUvCmc_N6WaXcWX61e3XT7SZvPAi_53WRauA_AJvgZKMMbrIiuykgBzMMgBl3Shmku9ioz1A0RAKqXtBKWaZ7o/s400/0156.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Allen Ginsberg</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">Recently, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Paris Review</i> posted a copy of the reading list that Ginsberg
drew up for students on the course he taught at Naropa Institute (now Naropa
University) in Colorado. Ginsberg and another poet, Anne Waldman, had launched
The Jack Kerouack School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa and his course was
called ‘Literary History of the Beats.’ Ginsberg realized that a lot
of his students hadn’t read many of the writers (“antient [sic] scriveners” he
called them) who had influenced the Beats so came up with a reading
list that he designated their “Celestial Homework.” It includes Yeats, Blake,
Whitman, Poe, Dickinson, Shakespeare and many others, including some of the
Beat writers themselves.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJr9n6D3HpSN0FzrAuHOCbDC4V82E6oIt6HixeQUW_1ANGWny6UL6wE4wJbxhsJx9i9DsPMMom9e52EdGSTMUS6MfmtzBweWeAjse04Q-DyShYh9IqLPHqir7JqSbqCzc1cYpM3x0xSRw/s1600/CelestialHomework1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJr9n6D3HpSN0FzrAuHOCbDC4V82E6oIt6HixeQUW_1ANGWny6UL6wE4wJbxhsJx9i9DsPMMom9e52EdGSTMUS6MfmtzBweWeAjse04Q-DyShYh9IqLPHqir7JqSbqCzc1cYpM3x0xSRw/s640/CelestialHomework1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">By taking Ginsberg’s phrase and creating
The Celestial Homework Club I intend to write about those things that have
influenced and inspired me – the books, art, music, films, etc. that make up my
experience of the world – and would love to hear about yours. Here’s the first page of Ginsberg’s
original reading list, with The Poetry Foundation's helpful links to many of the texts mentioned:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/05/allen-ginsbergs-celestial-homework/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/05/allen-ginsbergs-celestial-homework/</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I love it when writers you like offer tips for reading and more of this is becoming available through online resources - I'd much rather them than Amazon! Wonderful writers such as Milan Kundera (in <i>Testaments Betrayed, The Art of the Novel, The Curtain </i>and <i>Encounter</i>) and Alberto Manguel (in <i>The History of Reading</i> and <i>The Library at Night</i>) are like trusted</span> friends leading you along the labyrinthine path towards becoming a better reader - by that I mean someone who's always searching to be challenged, stretched and stimulated by reading to become, in my case, a better writer. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7rUaguBsKngx3jGUAwQ13ZxtD4R36TA7mbvwggQAbydtcn42bSlCQWbMkIo7nsY2GQH6AxNsacyV80gBKTowzLGE8HqpyQGNwn8CuWJ6WbsbutypwdKq7ySFLl__4tNJGZm9U3cbGa4/s1600/lecriture-selon-milan-kundera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7rUaguBsKngx3jGUAwQ13ZxtD4R36TA7mbvwggQAbydtcn42bSlCQWbMkIo7nsY2GQH6AxNsacyV80gBKTowzLGE8HqpyQGNwn8CuWJ6WbsbutypwdKq7ySFLl__4tNJGZm9U3cbGa4/s400/lecriture-selon-milan-kundera.jpg" width="391" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milan Kundera</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnA8pyl-UHEXvYKPHU4chDIPGGYtwV0tQDlrZ5rlRfZbf5-JjODUzgJlfZR05MLOYwYEtsonlFAkltT_FOyQw59MXW4Meyl8_Sl22QTIaLbD0ZxYebQBCi2MJXmycPLbhgKbckiXuNbg/s1600/MANGUEL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnA8pyl-UHEXvYKPHU4chDIPGGYtwV0tQDlrZ5rlRfZbf5-JjODUzgJlfZR05MLOYwYEtsonlFAkltT_FOyQw59MXW4Meyl8_Sl22QTIaLbD0ZxYebQBCi2MJXmycPLbhgKbckiXuNbg/s400/MANGUEL.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alberto Manguel</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’m also going to write about myself –
something I actually find quite difficult – because there have been some
changes in my life recently. A year or so ago I gave up my relatively secure,
relatively well-paid lecturing job at the University of Greenwich, to go
freelance and focus on my own work. I loved teaching, and would never say I’ll
not go back to it, but being in the classroom with Creative Writing students
was becoming less and less what the job was about. It’s also the case that, try
as you might, your own creativity takes a back seat to facilitating the work of
others and, after ten years, that really got to me. It was a family bereavement
that finally prompted me to change all that and, whilst I sometimes miss that
regular salary, I’ve no other regrets at all. On top of all of that the Higher
Education sector in the UK is changing, and not for the better (more on that,
I’m sure, in future posts). I’m glad I got out when I did.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US">I've been lucky enough to get involved with the LGBT arts & culture online journal, Polari Magazine and was recently made Arts Editor. All of us who write for Polari do so for free because we believe in what the magazine is doing - offering intelligent, interesting and creative content that's about lives and not lifestyles. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q8VfGU9VUc9tbU9QHJhJM6MMmp0qyNKOLe2SNlXmoxie128xNsMDZL8jdNpsLjBz00IjiAyAi6qUlCooslPKlfDKUAQr7K9c0XOE4jB5VKZC-qtZfe739P9WbCLctMyWX6xziVTx-90/s1600/Polarilogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q8VfGU9VUc9tbU9QHJhJM6MMmp0qyNKOLe2SNlXmoxie128xNsMDZL8jdNpsLjBz00IjiAyAi6qUlCooslPKlfDKUAQr7K9c0XOE4jB5VKZC-qtZfe739P9WbCLctMyWX6xziVTx-90/s400/Polarilogo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The magazine's two founders, Christopher Bryant (Editor) and Bryon Fear (Designer), have worked like demons, again for no money, to produce the magazine since they set it up 5 years ago. It's growing in circulation and reputation and there are exciting things in the pipeline - watch this space!<br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.polarimagazine.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">http://www.polarimagazine.com/</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Another big change coming up is that I’m
going to live in Lisbon, Portugal, from August – though I’ll be making frequent
trips to London (every month or so). I’m following my heart there after 2 years
in a long-distance relationship. When considering where we should base
ourselves my boyfriend and I figured out that it’s actually cheaper for us to
rent a large flat in Lisbon and for me to commute to the UK than it is for us
to get a one-bedroomed flat in London (he’s an artist and has even less money
than me). That’s a crazy financial situation and one that I know a lot of other
people struggle with. Surely it’s unsustainable? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s odd to think that I’m going to live in
a country that is essentially picking itself up from bankruptcy but where the
quality of life in many ways still seems pretty good – you can eat out and
drink so cheaply there but it has all the advantages of being a
capital city – and there’s a high level of spoken English generally (thank
goodness as I’m still at the very early stages of learning Portuguese!) </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7GFfFNggDQ9O24oBiWJ4U8APhQBEhNm8F-CGJrsYjykntewIBafXGqmW60nTRUSWr5dJVKY64FMIDhtPADcvWG8xsOsk2TbzAmOA8AgpTrtQthXw1V_RjrUzT3oRYGz4VXVkvLqfLrg/s1600/IMG_0531.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7GFfFNggDQ9O24oBiWJ4U8APhQBEhNm8F-CGJrsYjykntewIBafXGqmW60nTRUSWr5dJVKY64FMIDhtPADcvWG8xsOsk2TbzAmOA8AgpTrtQthXw1V_RjrUzT3oRYGz4VXVkvLqfLrg/s400/IMG_0531.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">If you’ve never visited Lisbon I would highly recommend it – it’s a beautiful little
jewel of a city that puts the shabby into chic and I’ve grown to love it over
the past couple of years, as I’ve grown to love my partner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Talking of love, here’s Ginsberg reading
one of his poems that I love – 'King of May' – in 1965 at the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, and sitting next to
him is Neal Cassidy who Ginsberg loved.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYha4_WWMDNRXdK6X4aeYf6GGdmMx02gt1VBC4aZ9ijZwYW3D3hJL0Qacw8ZDvp0XT86u-AF1Qmxx_nbO8bW5m0lOaIyT0iRNtb5-WjVN3ClEX6ozA4BEIu1hu28GYNU0tNERT18N3oJs/s1600/neal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYha4_WWMDNRXdK6X4aeYf6GGdmMx02gt1VBC4aZ9ijZwYW3D3hJL0Qacw8ZDvp0XT86u-AF1Qmxx_nbO8bW5m0lOaIyT0iRNtb5-WjVN3ClEX6ozA4BEIu1hu28GYNU0tNERT18N3oJs/s400/neal.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neal Cassady</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>The French novelist Emile Zola wrote, "If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I came to live out loud." This is an appealing and frightening idea for me - living out loud doesn't come naturally, but that's something I aim to change. I've become increasingly interested in the relationships between life and art and how art can be a portal to your own emotions, a way of talking about yourself when you talk about art, but also how it can create a cocoon as well as offer a sanctuary. It can be difficult to get the balance right. The Celestial Homework Club is somewhere I hope to explore all this and more. Living out loud.</o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emile Zola (by Manet, 1868)</td></tr>
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