50 Years On: Pride Month Pays Tribute to LGBTQ+ Superstars!

TERAVARNA
5 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

gay pride month parade — The Pride Flag is on this June and always ...

“When I was young, I decided that my sex, my gender, was nobody’s business.”

– American artist Roni Horn

Let’s go back to the time when there was no such pride known to the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) communities and they lived with the taboo and body shaming. There was severe societal oppression and even imprisonments for same-sex intimacy, marriages, or relationships.

However, the awareness to fight for justice for transgender and same-sex communities started to take shape during the 20th and 21st century. Though there still remains the stigma of homo & trans-sexuality, social awareness for transgender rights & protection took a surge after President Bill Clinton formalized the declaration of the Pride month for the LGBTQs in 1999.

Though criticized for their homosexual or bisexual identities, personalities like Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Robert Rauschenberg, or photographers like Mickalene Thomas or Nancy Andrews showed their genius through phenomenal work of art, literature, and music.

Let’s take a fascinating tour to this world of queer identities, starting from the era of Sappho, the ancient Greek female poet to know where the story of these unusual expressions began!

Sapphic Art: Busting Lesbian Myths and Creativity in Antiquity

The notion of female homo-sexuality is related to the tradition of Sappho, the great Greek muse, poet, who was famous for her homo-erotic poems.

Though the Sapphic term is much broader than Lesbianism, it is often considered as identical. The word 'lesbian' is associated with Sappho’s birthplace of Lesbos in Greece.

Her poems addressing the elusive romantic female relationships have ever triggered the concept of lesbianism, though there is no such evidence of Sappho being homosexual!

Till date, the members of the LGBTQ communities deeply connect with Sappho and Sapphic art – be it poems, paintings dealing with the same-sex affinity and a long history of oppression. The search for queer female representation in art and expressions remains so far!

sapphic art and lgbtq — Female Homosexual Love and Sappho!

In Search of Identities: LGBTQ Art and Artists from the 19th Century & beyond!

Now, let’s focus on the recent times, and discover how art history has been shaped and influenced by the remarkable works of the famous Pop artist Andy Warhol, Latin American painter Frida Kahlo, animal portrait artist Rosa Benheur, artist Ellsworth Kelly, Keith Haring to photographers like Nancy Andrews, Zanele Muholi, etc., who never hid their queer identities.

Artists sometimes ask themselves the same questions: what is my identity, what am I to represent through my art? How will people relate to my work? These quests have inspired them to create some bold, fearless works of art in spite of facing criticism or even persecution!

Rosa Benheur

The French artist Rosa Benheur was famous for her animal paintings of horses, cows, sheep, etc. She was so dedicated to her craft that she would often dress up in male pants to study the animals closely. Rosa, though not a proclaimed lesbian in her times, in the 19th century, lived with her fellow female painters for more than 40 years who were also lesbians.

Henry Scott Tuke

This gay pride month pays tribute to the painter who was known for his portraits of male nudes before he died in 1929. After the 1970s, work of Henry Tuke again got the spotlight and he was considered as a cult figure among the LGBTQ art communities.

lgbtqia gay artists painters — Henry Scott Tuke | Nude Male on the Rocks

Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was a self-proclaimed gay artist who created extraordinary installations like Color Panels for a Large Wall in 1978, using the primary and secondary color canvases. It was done for the East Building Atrium, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Andy Warhol Art

The American pop artist Andy Warhol democratized art as a product for the masses in his silkscreen prints. He repeated the superstar Merilyn Monroe image for 100 times across a huge canvas. Some creations were more intimate like art prints of his pet dogs which he shared with his gay partners designer Jed Johnson and John Giorno.

Frida Kahlo Paintings

The greatest Latin American art sensation, Frida Kahlo used to paint her instinct and agony as something fantastical. Though she was married to another great Latin American painter Diego Rivera, Frida was known for her bisexual inclinations, as she had affinity with both sexes – male and female lovers. In one of Frida Kahlo artwork, Two Nudes in a Forest she showed her bisexual tendencies.

Keith Haring

The pride month pays a special tribute to Keith Haring, another openly gay man and artist who introduced the themes of sexuality & inclusivity of the LGBT communities in his art. He lived through the era of 1969 Stonewall Riot, and triggered the issues relating to homosexuality and lack of awareness of the AIDS epidemic. His famous work Ignorance=Fear was targeted at the deathly silence surrounding the disease.

Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi represents the South African Black LGBTQIA+ communities with her intimate photography like the famous black and white series called Faces and Phases or Somnyama Ngonyama / Hail the Dark Lioness. Representing herself as a visual activist, Zanele shares her protest against the oppression and lack of visibility of the lesbian and queer communities of South Africa. She tries to create a space where these LGBTQ people are made visible, and recognized.

It All Begun with the Stonewall Riot in 1969

The story of shame and oppression has been a recurrent theme in history whenever people have tried to break the rules. There is no place for rebels here!

Though the concept of the pride movement as ‘gay pride’ was introduced by McConnell in 1971, it was triggered by the Stonewall Riot, when a massive protest turned out in favor of the American gay community.

It was the early morning of June 28, 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, NYC, frequented by young members of the LGBTQ community. They were selling liquor without a license. More than 400 people joined in the violent protest within a few hours and took complete charge of the situation. It sparked the later movements of LGBTQ+ in America and thus June was commemorated for their new found identity and pride.

pride month parade stonewall — Gay Pride Month March after the Stonewall Uprisings

Wings of Hope and Pride Still Look for the Sky!

Things have changed so far and there are recurrent protests for self-affirmation, identity, and equality by the people of these queer identities.

After the 1999 declaration by Clinton and further affirmations by the following American presidents till Joe Biden, some civil rights of the LGBTQs culture & communities were formalized and some were put to action, but the story is not yet over!

It’s a long way from this place to freedom, to breathe free in a world without taboos and shame, where the sunshine colors the rainbow, and the golden glow of hope shows at the end of the band!

In the month when the rainbow-striped pride flag is on, TERAVARNA art gallery salutes the indomitable spirit of visual artists and creators representing the LGBTQ+ people in search of self-worth and esteem.