Hidden Histories: 20th Century Male Same Sex Lovers in the Visual Arts

Hidden Histories was an exhibition and book commissioned by the New Art Gallery Walsall in 2004, curated and written by Michael Petry. No other institution of similar authority had presented such an unambiguous exhibition on the subject. That the museum was willing to state publicly what had long been spoken of privately gave institutional backing to what might otherwise have been seen as a marginal history. The book that accompanied the exhibition investigates the relationship between the artists’ production and the development of their sexual identity. It contains a historical section that looks at the legal, social and artistic backgrounds to lives of these artists over a century of vast change. It presents case studies in institutional homophobia, and makes a clear case for the notion of the addition of a horizonal history to traditional art historical accounts of the period. Petry posits the idea of a heterosexual filter being removed from the work of these artists. The book only looks at male artists as it was deemed that for a book reclaiming voice it would be inappropriate for Petry to speak for women, and it is hoped a similar exhibition and text on women artists follows.

The book has over 100 biographies on the artists and reproductions of their work.

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New article name is Hidden Histories: 20th Century Male Same Sex Lovers in the Visual Arts