The Homo-Erotics of Photography after Stonewall
Location
Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn : Gallery
Date & Time
December 7, 2017, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Description
James Smalls, Professor of Visual Arts, Affiliate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, and Affiliate Professor of Africana Studies, UMBC
This talk considers the social, cultural, and aesthetic dynamics of the nude figure in gay male photography. It explores the aesthetics and reception of the Mark Rice Collection of photographs, on exhibit in the Albin O. Kuhn Gallery from August 30th to December 12th, whose subject matter engages the mostly nude male body. The collection constitutes part of what is classified as gay male photography produced after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. The majority of the images date to the 1990s and will be considered in this historical context.
James Smalls’ research and publications focus on the intersections of race, gender, and queer sexuality issues in nineteenth-century European art and in the art and culture of the black diaspora. He is the author of Homosexuality in Art (Parkstone Press, 2003), and The Homoerotic Photography of Carl Van Vechten: Public Face, Private Thoughts (Temple University Press, 2006). He is currently completing a book entitled FéralBenga: African Muse of Modernism.
Sponsored by the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery; Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Gender + Women’s Studies Department; and the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts.
This talk considers the social, cultural, and aesthetic dynamics of the nude figure in gay male photography. It explores the aesthetics and reception of the Mark Rice Collection of photographs, on exhibit in the Albin O. Kuhn Gallery from August 30th to December 12th, whose subject matter engages the mostly nude male body. The collection constitutes part of what is classified as gay male photography produced after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. The majority of the images date to the 1990s and will be considered in this historical context.
James Smalls’ research and publications focus on the intersections of race, gender, and queer sexuality issues in nineteenth-century European art and in the art and culture of the black diaspora. He is the author of Homosexuality in Art (Parkstone Press, 2003), and The Homoerotic Photography of Carl Van Vechten: Public Face, Private Thoughts (Temple University Press, 2006). He is currently completing a book entitled FéralBenga: African Muse of Modernism.
Sponsored by the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery; Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Gender + Women’s Studies Department; and the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts.
