Nelson Mandela, Alan Turing, Bessie Smith, K.d.Lang
Quentin Crisp, Maya Angelou,Rosa Bonheur, Virginia Woolf
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The National Portrait Gallery invited ten high profile gay people to choose six individuals each who had inspired them. The panel of selectors was chaired by broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, and included Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Elton John, tennis player Billie Jean King, the authors Alan Hollinghurst and Sarah Waters and politicians Lord Waheed Alli and Chris Smith. The selectors were free to choose anyone they found inspirational, regardless of their sexuality, such as former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
telegraph.co.uk
The National Portrait Gallery invited ten high profile gay people to choose six individuals each who had inspired them. The panel of selectors was chaired by broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, and included Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Elton John, tennis player Billie Jean King, the authors Alan Hollinghurst and Sarah Waters and politicians Lord Waheed Alli and Chris Smith. The selectors were free to choose anyone they found inspirational, regardless of their sexuality, such as former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
telegraph.co.uk
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What are the qualities of a "gay icon"? According to the panel behind the latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, they include what you might expect: talent, wit, courage etc.
But a gay icon does not, it would seem, need to be gay. Among the individuals who will be featured in the show are the former South African president Nelson Mandela and the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Of course, there is a tradition of straight gay icons, stretching from Judy Garland to Smith in Sex And The City. But it is not only gay people who admire Mandela, or adore Garland for that matter. What then makes this a show of gay icons, rather than just icons?
Let us defer to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde who pointed out that "consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". And, as if to prove this point, Wilde – a gay icon if ever there was one – will not be in the show.
What are the qualities of a "gay icon"? According to the panel behind the latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, they include what you might expect: talent, wit, courage etc.
But a gay icon does not, it would seem, need to be gay. Among the individuals who will be featured in the show are the former South African president Nelson Mandela and the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Of course, there is a tradition of straight gay icons, stretching from Judy Garland to Smith in Sex And The City. But it is not only gay people who admire Mandela, or adore Garland for that matter. What then makes this a show of gay icons, rather than just icons?
Let us defer to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde who pointed out that "consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". And, as if to prove this point, Wilde – a gay icon if ever there was one – will not be in the show.
independent.co.uk
…και φυσικά επελέγησαν κυρίως αγγλοσάξονες. Τι έκπληξη!
…και φυσικά επελέγησαν κυρίως αγγλοσάξονες. Τι έκπληξη!
5 σχόλια:
The top gay icons (straight up!)
There are some surprisingly heterosexual inclusions in the National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition. Arifa Akbar reports
THE INDEPENDENT,Friday, 27 March 2009
What do the Princess of Wales, Nelson Mandela and Maya Angelou have in common? They are today's greatest gay icons, of course. A panel of high-profile gay figures including Sir Elton John, Billie Jean King, Lord Ali and Sir Ian McKellen have selected 60 of their most inspirational figures, be they openly lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, repressed or none of the above, to feature in an exhibition opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London in July.
The show will attempt to debunk the clichéd notion of the gay icon as a raging drag queen (perhaps with the exception of Lily Savage, who is included) and show the breadth of figures who positively influenced the 10 openly-gay judges who picked their favourite faces. Sandi Toksvig, the broadcaster and chairwoman of the panel, promised that the "Gay Icons" show would not feature hackneyed images of a feathered Kylie Minogue, Oscar Wilde, Michelangelo or indeed, any other well-known pink pin-ups.
Instead, the photographic portraits include prominent straight and gay people and their friends and family members. Sir Elton, for example, chose his (straight) lyricist Bernie Taupin, who began working with the singer at the age of 17, and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who was not gay but was known for championing democratic and artistic freedom.
Toksvig, on the other hand, said she chose Rosa Bonheur, the fiery 19th-century French painter whose audacious personal history gave courage to Toksvig in trying times, as well as the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and singer K D Lang "because she's sexy". "Not everyone on the list is gay and some might be surprised to find themselves on a list of gay icons," added Toksvig.
Some more predictable faces in the exhibition include those of the pop group Village People, the writer Quentin Crisp and the gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Other portaits are of people who were rumoured to have been tormented by homosexual urges at a time when it was criminalised, such as the writer Daphne Du Maurier, poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and Russian composer Tchaikovsky.
The exhibition is not simply aiming to challenge gay stereotypes, said Toksvig, but also to celebrate people who have served as inspirational figures, often in times when being openly gay was simply not permissible. Reflecting on her own experiences at Cambridge University, when she was nearly expelled for having her girlfriend stay the night, and in the early 1990s when she came out as a lesbian and received death threats, Toksvig said she used to be "desperate" to find a role model, particulary one who was gay.
"I used to watch Martina Navratilova, even though I loathed tennis," she said. "In 1979, I was desperate for any woman in the public eye with whom I could identify. When in 1994 I was threatened by a tabloid, I outed myself. I received a series of death threats but my life was 1,000-fold better. At the time, there was no other 'out' woman in the media."
She said that while much had changed since then – with greater social acceptance of homosexuality, openly gay MPs and same-sex civil partnerships – many of the same prejudices still held sway in some areas of society. The idea that the exhibition was not needed was simply untrue, she added. "I hope it will give courage to people who are still struggling with their sexuality and to see an exhibition of this kind in a prestigious place might also make other people reassess their attitudes."
Sandy Nairne, the gallery director, said: "It is an exhibition that explores the portraiture and biographies of important and intriguing people through the last two centuries. The title has a degree of creative ambiguity that we liked. It is a bold and edgy show and that's why it's relevant."
Pim Baxter, the project manager of Gay Icons, said it aimed to reach far beyond the gay community and attract mainstream audiences. Only a few of the featured icons have been revealed so far, and the gallery is promising a few surprises when the exhibition is unveiled on 2 July. A history of the notion of the gay icon, written by the film academic Richard Dyer will accompany the show.
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Sandy Nairne: They don't begin and end with Kylie Minogue and Judy Garland
Friday, 27 March 2009
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York – a marker for many in the gay community in terms of resistance and overcoming the negative attitudes and discrimination that gay people have experienced for so long. But what we wanted to say with this exhibition is that while it is an important anniversary, it is a very good moment to celebrate the diversity of the achievements of gay people over these years. The way in which we wanted to stage the exhibition was not simply to follow a set-piece idea of what other people might think were the "classic" gay icons, but instead to invite a number of distinguished figures, from many different backgrounds and places, to become our selectors and to ask "Who is it that is iconic for you?" The selectors have interpreted what "iconic" means in very different ways. But centrally there is a strong sense of inspiration. Of course, there is a crossover with the broader themes of equality, tackling discrimination and finding ways to overcome it.
I think it would have been quite wrong to limit the icons to those who are themselves gay. I admit there is a certain ambiguity in the exhibition's title, but I think this is a very creative ambiguity which opens up questions about what being gay means and also questions what "iconic" might mean.
The gallery has got nothing against the classic Judy Garland and Kylie Minogue figures – such images appear in the book we are publishing with the show, where Richard Dyer examines the stereotypes within the terminology of gay icons. But for the exhibition itself we wanted to focus on those who were inspirational for the selectors. The fact that the selectors are themselves gay doesn't mean they only identify with other gay figures.
I raised the idea for the show with the gallery's trustees two years ago. Everyone felt it was consistent with our exhibitions programme. If it is bold, I hope it is bold in a fascinating and exciting way and that it will draw visitors into the stories told through the portraits. There are such good stories to tell, and many more will be revealed nearer the July opening.
Sandy Nairne is the director of the National Portrait Gallery
Kαι ο Μαντέλα gay;
regardless of their sexuality λέει η telegraph, a gay icon does not, it would seem, need to be gay σημειώνει ο idependent.
συγνώμη τα αγγλικά μου δεν είναι και τόσο καλά
Αντιλαμβάνομαι ότι τα κείμενα θα έπρεπε να αναρτώνται μεταφρασμένα στα ελληνικά, αλλά αυτό είναι πρακτικά αδύνατο.
Ελπίζω να υπάρχει κατανόηση.
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