The young and evil : queer modernism in New York, 1930-1955  /
Earnest, Jarrett,editor,author.
Reynolds, Ann Morris,author.
Silver, Kenneth E.,author.
Schreiber, Michael(Writer),author.
David Zwirner (Gallery),host institution.
"The Young and Evil tells the story of a group of artists and writers active during the first half of the twentieth century, when homosexuality was as problematic for American culture as figuration was for modernist painting. These artists--including Paul Cadmus, Fidelma Cadmus Kirstein, Charles Henri Ford, Jared French, Margaret Hoening French, George Platt Lynes, Bernard Perlin, Pavel Tchelitchew, George Tooker, Alexander Jensen Yow, and their circle--were new social creatures, playfully and boldly homosexual at a time when it was both criminalized and pathologized. They pursued a modernism of the body--driven by eroticism and bounded by intimacy, forming a hothouse world within a world that doesn't nicely fit any subsequent narrative of modern American art. In their work, they looked away from abstraction toward older sources and models--classical and archaic forms of figuration and Renaissance techniques. What might be seen as a reactionary aesthetic maneuver was made in the service of radical content--endeavoring to depict their own lives. Their little-known history is presented here through never- before-exhibited photographs, sculptures, drawings, ephemera, and rarely seen major paintings--offering the first view of its kind into their interwoven intellectual, artistic, and personal lives"-- Publisher's website.
Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at David Zwirner from February 21-April 13, 2019.
Includes bibliographical references.
A brief history of intimacy / Jarrett Earnest -- No strangers / Ann Reynolds -- Homo erectus and his discontents / Kenneth E. Silver -- Intimate companion: a conversation with Alexander Jensen Yow / Michael Schreiber -- Biographies / Kara Carmack.
"The Young and Evil tells the story of a group of artists and writers active during the first half of the twentieth century, when homosexuality was as problematic for American culture as figuration was for modernist painting. These artists--including Paul Cadmus, Fidelma Cadmus Kirstein, Charles Henri Ford, Jared French, Margaret Hoening French, George Platt Lynes, Bernard Perlin, Pavel Tchelitchew, George Tooker, Alexander Jensen Yow, and their circle--were new social creatures, playfully and boldly homosexual at a time when it was both criminalized and pathologized. They pursued a modernism of the body--driven by eroticism and bounded by intimacy, forming a hothouse world within a world that doesn't nicely fit any subsequent narrative of modern American art. In their work, they looked away from abstraction toward older sources and models--classical and archaic forms of figuration and Renaissance techniques. What might be seen as a reactionary aesthetic maneuver was made in the service of radical content--endeavoring to depict their own lives. Their little-known history is presented here through never- before-exhibited photographs, sculptures, drawings, ephemera, and rarely seen major paintings--offering the first view of its kind into their interwoven intellectual, artistic, and personal lives"-- Publisher's website.
Homosexuality in art
Gay men in art
Gay artists
Gay artists
Modernism (Art)