Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts

Rating:
Summary: "L'amour bleu" is ten times better
Review: I didn't like much about this book. The choice of what to reproduce, the quality of the reproductions, and the accompanying text were, frankly, awful.

Cecile Beurdeley did a much better job with her book, "L'amour bleu." The reproductions are of very high quality, the text is largely illuminating, and the choice of artwork to reproduce cannot be faulted. I would recommend seeking that out, and giving this book a pass.

Rating:
Summary: BEYOND PERICLES, PEDERASTY AND POTTERY
Review: In the relatively small area of gay studies devoted to the visual arts, "Pictures and Passions" is a standout. Just about everything that has gay or lesbian thematic relevance is in here, from cave drawings to Renaissance sculpture to Japanese pornographic "pillow books" to the cover of DIVA magazine.

I really consider this to be an intellectual and social history as much as a history-of-art text. Author James Saslow insists that we know enough about the cultural background of each place and time so that we can place the import of the homosexual art in its proper context. For example, anyone who expects ancient Athens to be San Francisco with togas is going to be disappointed--"homosexuality was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere" in the author's famous line; it was culturally pervasive but did not give rise to anything like our 20th century gay life.

In Europe, different centuries have different signatures; at some times male homosexuality and lesbianism could be openly alluded to in art and at other times, only symbolically, as through religious allegory (St. Sebastian was a favorite). At no time--not even when persecution of homosexuals was at its peak--did I feel that Saslow was scraping the bottom of the barrel for gay subject matter. There was always something interesting going on. Non-European subject matter receives treatment too.

The last thirty years, the so-called "post-Stonewall" era, have been a boon for gay and lesbian art in America, and the last fifty pages of this book dwells on that. I for one wish Saslow had been a little more selective about this period--there is some great stuff chronicled here, but also some fairly trashy pop art that it is safe to say won't last.

Since "Pictures and Passions" is a history of thought book as much as a history-of-art book, if any aspect of the field suffers, it is artistic technique. This is not a book to learn about the rise of perspective, or what impressionism is, or why abstract art rose to prominence. For that, the reader would have to consult one of the standard texts on the subject or a beginner's work like "Art for Dummies." I can easily see this book being used in a Gay Studies course in college, or to add diversity to a standard art course. I think it will find a good audience among art lovers, and hopefully not just gay men and lesbians. The book itself is an attractive presentation, copiously illustrated, and includes color panels. Saslow's prose is acadmic but no more than it has to be.