Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (Ideologies of Desire)
"A smartly written, intensively researched and vigilantly argued new book.... Whether analyzing a painting or the words of a political speech, Mr. Meyer comes across as a cool but engaged observer. Most important, he's a good storyteller, and he has fascinating stories to tell."--Holland Cotter,TheNew York Times"In Richard Meyer's subtle and informative book, nothing is quite so simple as the heroic story his title suggests....[Meyer] wants us to think about the way the possibility of art, at least when same-sex desire enters the picture, is always entangled with its own censorship."--Artforum"This genuinely groundbreaking book charts the unexpectedly productive as well as restrictive effects of queers' multiple encounters with censorship over the course of the last century. Beautifully written and illustrated, Meyer's study combines significant historical research and reflection with richly insightful interpretations of queer art to illuminate the history of twentieth-century American art and culture as a whole as well as the distinctive and little-known history of gay artists."--George Chauncey, Professor of History, University of Chicago"InOutlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art, Richard Meyer crafts a brilliant and persuasive argument about the interdependence of representations of homosexuality and acts of censorship. Throughout the book, Meyer excels at close, detailed visual interpretations of images. Rigorous analyses of color, of actual paint application, of sitters' postures and their costumes all yield nuanced readings of the terms by which homosexuality is represented and censored. Meyer's text provides a sophisticated, nuanced, theoretically informed reading that is nonetheless jargon-free. To my mind, the book sets a new standard for contemporary art-historical scholarship: clear writing and persuasive and original thinking about the ways in which images function as historical agents and not mere reflections of either history or theory."--Cécile Whiting, Professor of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles"It seems fitting that the best book on the policing of sexual imagery in the twentieth century should be written by an art historian. Meyer deftly uncloaks not just the invidious ways censorship seeks to rub out the work of gay artists, but also the equally powerful ways censorship is itself creatively thematized, analyzed, and satirized by the very artists targeted for suppression. This terrifically smart and intellectually savvy book should be required bedside reading for every public official boorish enough to wage war on the resourceful and imaginative world of contemporary American art."--Diana Fuss, Professor of English, Princeton University