Hidden Histories: The Experience of Curating a Male Same Sex Exhibition and the Problems Encountered

Abstract

Hidden Histories: 20th century male same sex lovers in the visual arts An exhibition and book by Michael Petry The New Art Gallery Walsall: May – July 2004 Artmedia Press, London, May 2004 Hidden Histories was the first international historical survey of its kind to examine the lives and work of male artists in the 20th century who were same sex lovers. It comprised a curatorial project within The University of Wolverhampton, an exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall and a publication by Artmedia Press. This text looks at issues that arose in the production of the project which included a change of name from Mad About the Boy, ethical concerns, and censorship by the local council. Hidden Histories did not contend there was a queer, gay or same sex aesthetic connecting the work of the surveyed artists. It did not ‘out’ anyone – all the information presented existed in the public domain. Hidden Histories documented how male artists' work was affected by evolving attitudes to homosexuality. Its thesis (the arch of openness) describes how public attitudes changed throughout the 20th Century; from prohibition in the late Victorian Period, to begrudging tolerance in the inter‐wars years; from relative openness post WWI, to outright homophobia during the Cold War; and from decriminalisation in the West (following the Stonewall Riots), to stigma in the AIDS era. Hidden Histories was premised on the inter‐dependence of same sex and dominant cultures, and demonstrates that irrespective of legal or societal prohibitions, same sex lovers continued to make a rich and varied contribution to artistic dialogue.

The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research

“…Other work has examined questions of how different social actors can have, and have had, an influence on the creation of archives and the preservation of cultural heritage, such as Olivia Robinson and Trish Barnard's work, which looks at Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and how they have sought to influence the collection of both tangible and intangible heritage (Robinson and Barnard, 2010). This work also now extends to reflections by curators on the difficulties, for example, of the curation of a male same-sex exhibition (Petry, 2010). Feminist research has highlighted the particular problems arising from embedded patriarchal assumptions within cultural heritage management.…”

Here and Queer in Toronto

“…This might allow us to circumnavigate the question of whether historical figures or artifacts which predate the notion of gay as an identity but display same-sex romances should be included. However, it gets into dangerous territory of stereotyping a queer aesthetic which privileges the white, wealthy cisgender gay man as the one true queer narrative (Petry, 2010). It is also important to avoid only representing queer people with objects relating to sex as that perspective over-sexualizes queer people and denies other aspects of their lives (Vanegas, 2010).…”

Educación artística para formar docentes en derechos humanos y diversidad sexual

“…Mientras comprobamos que a nivel legal los síntomas de normalidad en el ámbito LGTB van llegando de forma progresiva y paulatina, en el ámbito educativo sigue sin visibilizarse esta realidad. En los museos y entornos patrimoniales domina un planteamiento heteronormativo que necesita revisarse (Petry, 2007). El comportamiento homofóbico que proviene del entorno mediático perjudica al alumnado, que es en última instancia quien más sufre la lgtbfobia (Huerta, 2016;UNESCO, 2012) Intentar progresar en una temática como esta en un entorno educativo tropieza con numerosos obstáculos.…”