There are a TON of special exhibits lined up for my Gay & Lesbian gallery tour on Sat. Dec. 11 at 1:00 PM, including a monumental show of early work by Robert Rauschenberg, arguably the second most important gay artist of the 20th century (Andy Warhol being, by most accounts, number one).  Though Rauschenberg died just two years ago, and he exhibited new work all the way until his last days, it was his earliest work of “combines” that was the most groundbreaking, and that’s what this gallery show mostly contains.  These pieces were constructed from mostly foraged trash in New York City streets, and they are audacious and original for their time.

But the most controversial stop on our tour is the first exhibit we’ll see.  A Minneapolis-based artist visited the homes of families after meeting them online and took sexy pictures of their domestic life.  You’ll see gay couples, lesbian couples, and straight families, and they’re unclothed much of the time.  The controversial part is one photo of a nude six year-old boy coming out of the shower.  Though I visit 3000 gallery shows a year, I’ve seen photos with child frontal nudity only once in a gallery (and never in a museum): Sally Mann’s pictures from the 1990s of her own children frolicking outdoors, that generated widespread condemnation and accusations of child pornography, while propelling her career.  In the show we’ll be visiting Saturday, it’s a male artist’s work.  The gallery owner wasn’t comfortable hanging the nude child piece on his wall, so he’s going to give our group a special showing while we’re there.  Is it child pornography?  You’ll decide when you see it for yourself.

Speaking of nude photos, we’ll be visiting a fascinating show of physique photography from the 1940s and ‘50s, when male pornographic imagery was illegal.  These are shots of men mostly in g-strings (and several completely in the buff) flexing their muscles so as to promote a “healthy” lifestyle.  At least, that’s what the artists told the censors.  In fact, these blatantly homoerotic photos by pioneering gay male artists offer an extraordinary glimpse into valiant efforts by pre-Stonewall queers to circumvent society’s repressive values.  The various scenes of two men playing around are my personal favorites.

If that’s not enough, later on in the tour we’ll be attending a live music performance, the rarest of all gallery shows.  A gay artist and his partner will be performing in drag in the room next to his current show of paintings.  They’re playing for just 20 minutes that day, so I’m going to have to time the sequence of gallery visits carefully.  We’ve never once had the opportunity to witness a queer performance act in the 87 LGBT tours I’ve led over the past 9 years.  After the performance, and still in full make-up, the artist will speak to our group to explain how the music ties in with his paintings.

And let’s not forget a young lesbian artist’s exhibit of painting, that is also on our itinerary.  She combines acrylic paint and spray paint to create abstract imagery that comments on the urban experience.  The work is edgy and dynamic, and she’s one of the very few female artist I know doing graffiti-like art.  Unfortunate update: this artist was recently involved in a bicycle accident in Brooklyn and had to be hospitalized for a head injury that included some memory loss.  This gives us all the more reason to show our support by visiting her show, and I wish her a most speedy recovery.

The above are just 5 of 7 shows we’ll be visiting on Saturday.  We’ll also see another gay artist’s wax-cast male and female nudes, plus a straight artist’s show of paintings and sculptures that is the most widely talked-about of the season so far, garnering all kinds of international attention.  On top of everything else, you’ll get lots of chances to socialize.  It is going to be a whirlwind of a day!

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours