Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (Ideologies of Desire)

by Richard Meyer

Overview

“I know it when I see it…” These words, famously spoken in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, became the rallying cry of the anti-obscenity lobby as their enraged howls became the soundtrack to a tumultuous mixture of modern art, homosexuality, and public funding.

Author Richard Meyer charts the history of this American culture war through detailed analysis of the work of artists who fought on the front lines, often finding themselves personally vilified… and their artwork suppressed, denounced, and censored.

Meyer tells the heroic story of the artists who, rather than acquiesce to their critics, doubled down in their response and created an “Outlaw Representation” of homosexuality. Liberated by their new outlaw status, the homosexual art community was suddenly free to create some of the most socially important work of their generation.

Outlaw Representation is filled with brilliant artwork from some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th Century, including…

Andy Warhol

Robert Mapplethorpe

Paul Cadmus

Gran Fury

David Wojnarowicz

Holly Hughes

… and many more

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626543171
Publisher:	Echo Point Books & Media
Publication date:	01/15/2018
Edition description:	Reprint, Revised ed.
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Richard Meyer, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, teaches courses in twentieth-century American art, the history of photography, arts censorship and the first amendement, curatorial practice, and gender and sexuality studies. His first book, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art, was awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2013, he published What Was Contemporary Art?, a study of the idea of "the contemporary" in early twentieth-century American art, and, with Catherine Lord, Art and Queer Culture, a survey focusing on the dialogue between visual art and non-normative sexualities from 1885 to the present. Professor Meyer is interested in the relation between the academic discipline of art history and the practice of museum curating. Prior to arriving at Stanford, he taught undergradaute curatorial courses at USC and the University of Pennsylvania, both of which culminated in museum exhibitions. In 2014, he will co-teach an undergraduate curatorial course with Connie Wolf, the Director of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, that will result in a collaboratively organized show at the museum. Outiside the context of university teaching, Meyer served as guest curator of Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered at the Jewish Museum in New York and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and of Naked Hollywood: Weegee in LosAngeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

The Red Envelope: On Censorship and Homosexuality

A Different American Scene: Paul Cadmus and the Satire of Sexuality

Most Wanted Men: Homoeroticism and the Secret of Censorship in Early Warhol

Barring Desire: Robert Maplethorpe and the Discipline of Photography

Vanishing Points: Art, AIDS, and the Problem of Visibility

With updated preface and afterword

Editorial Reviews

"Smartly written, intensively researched and vigilanatly argued . . . Whether analyzing a painting or the words of a political speech, Meyer comes across as a cool but engaged observer. Most important, he's a good storyteller and eh has fascinating stories to tell." —Holland Cotter, The New York Times

"This genuinely groundbreaking book charts the unexpectedly productive as well as restrictive effects of queers' multiple encounters with censorship over the course of the last century. Beautifully written and illustrated, Meyer's study combines significant historical research and reflection with richly insightful interpretations of queer art to illuminate the history of twentieth-century American art and culture as a whole as well as the distinctive and little-known history of gay artists." —George Chauncey, author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Made World, 1890-1940

"This terrifically smart and intellectually savvy book should be required bedside reading for every public official boorish enough to wage war on the resourceful and imaginative world of contemporary American art." —Diana Fuss, author of Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories

"Richard Meyer crafts a brilliant and persuasive argument about the interdependence of representations of homosexuality and acs of censorship . . . To my mind, the book sets a new standard for contemporary art-historical scholarship." —Cécile Whiting, author of A Taste for Pop: Pop Art Gender, and Consumer Culture

"Meyer deftly combines a close reading of individual works and intelligent social and political sythesis." —Linda Nochlin, "Best of 2002: Books," Artforum

From the Publisher