Intercontinental Queer Art Roadshow

INTERCONTINENTAL QUEER ART ROADSHOW
By: Nicholas P. Morgan

Friday

Friday morning we departed our hotel and made our way to the train station to travel to the Musée D’ Orsay. We emerged from the subway onto a beautiful plaza of beige stone. Once past the security and ticket checks, the space opens into the cavernous hall with an arched ceiling of glass and intricately carved panels lining the columns and arches between the sections of glass. Our group met briefly near the entrance to discuss the history of the space and receive our commission for the day: to seek out queerness in collections of the D’Orsay. We then dispersed throughout the museum.

Myself, Elliott, and Eden began our visit at the top of the museum with impressionist painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Cézanne. During our saunter through the works of the great impressionists, I happened upon a docent giving an English presentation about artist Paul Cézanne. During her presentation, she described Cézanne as someone, “averse to the attention of women” and someone who, “married rather late in life.” To me this indicated that Cézanne may have been queer. After some brief research and a discussion with my colleagues, I found out that indeed much of Cézanne’s work is very queer and he likely was as well. This draws to attention how museums often “sanitize” the queer truth about art and artists.

One piece I found particularly queer and intriguing was Bal du moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The objective beauty and complexity of this piece are tremendous. Adding to the beauty of the piece, queerness is evident in Bal du moulin. In the lower right corner two gentlemen are seated next to each other at a table. The individual on the left with the top hat stares with interest at a third man seated across from him. The man on the right with the boater hat seems to be staring off into space – disinterested in the conversation between the third man and the two women he is speaking two. Throughout the painting, almost every man except these two is with, and is very close to a woman. The fact that these two are seated together and seems generally disinterested in the women across the table from theme indicate a level of queerness to me.

Bal du moulin de la Galette

Later that afternoon I met Elliott to tour the Catacombs of Paris. After a two hour wait in line, we entered the head house and descended a spiral staircase 65 feet below street level. The most incredible part of this experience was grasping the fact that the bones of over six million people are housed in the crypts of the catacombs.

 

Saturday

Our travel day to Berlin began with a 06:15 AM report time in the hotel lobby. After copious amounts of coffee, the cohort lurched the two blocks to the metro stop. From there we travelled to the Paris East Station. After about an hour, our train arrived on the platform. We expeditiously recombobulated our collective effects and made haste to platform 26. The train slipped out of the station before we had all stowed our luggage. As we left Paris behind us and made for the border, our TGV began rapidly accelerating. The French, ever-proud of their engineering accomplishments, made sure our top speed of 310km/h (~250 mph) was prominently displayed every few slides on the in-cabin information board. As we approached Frankfurt, our fearless leaders informed us that we would have little to no time to detrain, find our next platform, and board the next train that would ultimately take us to Berlin. We began collecting ourselves early so as to be prepared for the move.

As soon as the train came to rest on the platform, we alighted and immediately all channelled our inner “Long-Island-Lola” as we power strut through Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. We arrived at platform 6 and took a collective breath as our train had not yet arrived. I looked around the gorgeous terminal and absorbed its magnificence. The vaulted glass ceilings stretched from the buffers to the end of the platforms. As I captured a brief photo that failed to do justice to the majesty of the station, a German ICE train floated onto the platform and again the race was on to find our carriage. Again, the train departed just as the last of us were boarding.

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof

Relief flowed through the cohort as our ICE train trundled into Berlin Hauptbahnhof. We sluggishly collected our gear, descended to street level, and walked to the taxi stand. As we descended, I once again marveled at the magnificence of yet another massive, vaulted glass ceiling. I found myself considering the value Europeans place on infrastructure and rail travel compared to Americans. Our cab ride to the hotel was a much needed respite from a day spent on trains.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Sunday

We began our day with a guest appearance by Dr. Jonathan Katz during breakfast. As always, our conversations with him were filled with fascinating new information and incredible detail. From the hotel we proceeded to the Akademie Der Künst to see an exhibition titled “Abfallprodukte Der Liebe”. The exhibit was put on by Elfi Mikesch, Rosa von Praunheim, and Werner Schroeter. The first room of the installation was a preview of the three artists lives, and films. The second two rooms were exhibits by Elfi Mikesch and Werner Schroeter. Both these rooms were stark, dimly lit, and featured dark, aggressive orchestral background music. The walls of these rooms featured photographs, stills from the artists’ films, and the actual films produced by these artists.

Abfallprodukte Der Liebe

The third room was what I will call “the penis room”. This room was Rosa von Praunheim’s room. According to Dr. Katz, a friend of Rosa, this room resembled her mind: every where and all over the place. As one approached the room, a low sign that translates to “WARNING PENISES” greets the viewer, though “greets” is used loosely here. The room is filled, in very chaotic fashion with drawing of penises, magazines, murals, projected art, porn, and all other sorts of penis themed art. Though I am a queer man, this room was a lot of chaos and a lot of penis for 10:30 AM.

Our next stop was the Gemäldegalerie. We began our museum walk with Dr. Katz by viewing Byzantine art commissioned by churches in the 9th through 11th centuries. Even in these ancient works, queerness was evident. From the Byzantines we proceeded to Italian renaissance works. Again, queerness was evident throughout the collection, thought the docents and curators may not know or talk about it. One queer piece was Der hl. Sebastian by Sandro Botticelli. In the common vernacular, Botticelli was a known homosexual. What makes him unique, however, is that the Catholic Church continued to commission works from him. Der hl. Sebastian was one of these pieces. Works like this gave Botticelli reason to paint beautiful male bodies and get paid for it.

Der hl. Sebastian

After the official tour Elliott, Dr. Pitts, and I took another walk through the collection with Dr. Katz. This was the most informative and interesting part of the Gemäldegalerie for me. It was during the portion that I saw some of my favorite works and gained the most from Dr. Katz. One such work was Die niederländischen Sprichwörter by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This work was meant to hang in a church to serve as a warning of actions that could land someone in hell. While the work serves as stern warning, it also offers titillating and at times humorous depicting of various debaucherous acts.

Die niederländischen Sprichwörter

Our final museum for Sunday was the Schwules Museum. Open since 1985, the museum has displayed work focusing on LGBT life in Berlin. In reposes to criticism that the museum has been too male-centric, the Schwules committed to make 2018 “The Year of the Lesbian”, only featuring lesbian art in its special exhibition sections. This museum was particularly special as I had an opportunity to see art where white queer men were not the focus, a theme that was quite present at other queer exhibits, including the Leslie Lohman in New York. I very much enjoyed not only the art, but also watching other team members enjoy art that was actually about them and the identities they held.

My favorite pieces from the Schwules were selections from the Off the Rocket series by Yori Gagarim and Giants I, II, III by Risk Hazenkamp. An exhibition of queer AFAB bodies of so many shapes and forms, Off the Rocket was incredibly special. This is a form of representation that is so unfortunately rare. Though I am not AFAB, I appreciated the power of this set.

Off the Rocket

My favorite piece of the day was far and away Giants I, II, III. As a photographer, I greatly appreciated the objective qualities of the work. On top of this, I was in awe of the concept of the work: a strong lesbian woman, aging and maturing with grace. I am in awe of the symbolism and imagery in the piece. As small details change the viewer experiences her journey with her.

Giants I, II, III