Credit must go to Samm Deighan over at Satanic Pandemonium for giving me this idea. You can catch her and Kat Ellinger wax poetic on the like of Jess Franco, Eurocult, and other subversive cinema over at the Daughters of Darkness podcast.
It's June. So that mean's it's pride month. Every time around this month I consume art made by LGBTQ artists. Last year was Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On. This year continues the tradition. There is so much art out there outside of what you normally are tuned to. So I'm challenging you to take on at least one piece of art made by an LGBTQ artist. If you haven't seen/heard/read that piece of art, even better! Watch a movie, read a book, listen to a record, stare into a painting. Think outside the box.
Here are more than a dozen of the artists that continue to fascinate and inspire me.
Stay tuned for Part 2 later this month.
Kenneth Anger (1927- )
Work: Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
In 1947, Anger made Fireworks- the first openly gay movie. This was at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the US. Anger was taken to court on obscenity charges. In 1950, he made Puce Moment, short that became a precursor to music videos. His next work, Rabbit's Moon would go on to influence David Lynch's work. Scorpio Rising convinced Martin Scorsese to marry pop songs to specific scenes in his movies. Inuguration of the Pleasure Dome is a parody of wanting to become a part of a social group. All of these films are a part of his Magic Lantern Cycle.
A devout follower to Alestair Crowley, Anger would put things in his movies for the sole intent of pissing them off- not dissimilair from Crowley's philosophy. Particularly in his work after Scorpio Rising. In this way, the avant garde counterculture shock artist is fickle when it comes to discussing his work. Is he really embracing the ideas in his films? What makes his work all the more ambiguous is the publishing of Hollywood Babylon. A book of rumors and gossip about various Hollywood figures of the Silent and Golden Age eras that have been heavily debunked.
Francis Bacon (1909- 1992)
Work: Three Figures At the Base of Crucifixion
The first time a Bacon painting grace my eyes was through Batman. The famous art museum scene where the Joker and his goons decides to broaden their minds. He saves a Bacon from Bob's knife in the nick of time. "I kinda like this one, Bob. Leave it."
I'd later stumble on his painting that established him among the notable artists coming out of Europe: Three Figures At the Base of Crucifixion. Two years later he did Painting. Both pieces have a visceral, violent quality I haven't come across in painting before. Head VI for example shows the human figure painted in such a shocking way. What you see in his paintings is a man emptying his darkest thoughts onto the canvas.
Some recommendations: David Sylvester's Interviews With Francis Bacon is an essential work of Bacon's inner life as an artist.
The documentary A Brush With Violence is a great primer on the man.
James Baldwin (1924- 1987)
Work: Giovanni's Room
Barry Jenkins adapted If Beale Street Could Talk a few years ago. Two years before that, Raoul Peck made a doc on Baldwin called I Am Not Your Negro. Baldwin's words have never not been relevant in America. His incendiary work The Fire Next Time is the kind of book that belongs in any Civil Rights discussion and his fiction belong in any serious literature discussion.
One of my favorite interviews with Baldwin is on the Dick Cavett Show where he decimates another guest.
Clive Barker (1952- )
Work: Books of Blood
One of the highlights of my life was meeting Clive Barker at the Days of the Dead horror convention. He commented on my Suspiria shirt and we fist bumped. Like many a horror fan, Hellraiser was my entry point into his work. Nightbreed and Candyman followed. Around the time I got into horror fiction, I devoured Books of Blood. In the Hills, the Cities being one of my favorite stories from any writer. Barker fans point to Imajica and Weaveworld as his masterpieces. Though he fuses fantasy elements with horror with those works.
He helped facilitate a discussion of horror called the Horror Cafe. Roger Corman, John Carpenter, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle and Peter Atkins are in the convo.
Wendy Carlos (1939- )
Work: A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack
When I think of music to Stanley's films, the Clockwork Orange soundtrack immediately comes to mind before anything else. It was one of the first vinyls I'd purchase. It's a glorious synthesis of classical and synth.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945- 1982)
Work: The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
Between 1969 and 1982, Rainer Werner Fassbinder put out over 30 films, two TV series, and directed a number of plays. Some of the themes he returns to are controversial relationships. Whether they are homosexual, between different classes, different races, such as in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.
Unlike other directors from the German New Wave who started out making films, Rainer's stage work is evident throughout his work. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant could just as easily have been a stage play. His versatility didn't end there. He served as composer, production designer, cinematographer and editor on various projects.
His films have killer soundtracks: Leonard Cohen, The Platters and Scott Walker all show up.
Jean Genet (1910- 1986)
Work: Our Lady of the Flowers
Jean Genet wrote his first novel, Our Lady of the Flowers in his prison cell. One day, while the prisoners were marching in the yard, prison authorities found the manuscript and burned it. Genet started again. Nothing mattered to him except the paper that could be reduced to ashes by the strike of a match.
"It appears to only have one subject", Jean Paul Sartre mentions in the introduction, "Fatality: the characters are puppets of destiny. With fiendish application it leads human creatures to downfall and death. And yet, in its strange language it presents the downfall as a triumph. The rogues and wretches of whom it speaks all seem to be heroes, to be of the elect."
Genet was many things in his life: a runaway, a teenage criminal, a prostitute and, a writer. His work transgresses literary genre through innovation and imagination. It is oddly inspiring and a wonder to read.
Todd Haynes (1961- )
Work: Safe
Todd Haynes could have made Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and retired, he would still make this list. Thankfully, he didn't. Many directors made a short before venturing out into a feature. No one quite matches the ambition and confidence that Haynes did on Superstar. Using only dolls to tell a story of the life and tragic death of Karen Carpenter, Haynes showed his knack for throwing out the rule book entirely right from the outset. His formal audaciousness only improved with features.
Of his pictures, Safe is the one that strikes me the most. There is an unesttling undercurrent that can be applied to the present. It's every bit as fresh as it was when it came out. During Quarantine, it was a movie I'd continuously think of as capturing the mood of the time.
Velvet Goldmine is a horse of a different color entirely. There's an exuberance to the film that completely matches the subject matter- Britain's glam rock scene in the early 70s.
Elton John (1947- )
Work: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
From Tumblweed Connection thru Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, his work was solid fucking gold. Him and Bernie Taupin were able to capture magic. The peak of it all being Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, an album safely secure in my top 5. No one oozed theatricality and audacity quite like Elton in his performances on stage. He didn't really regain the momentum he had in the 70's. Releasing only a handful of songs that stand up to his work back then. Last Song from his 1992 album The One being a strong contender among my favorite songs of his.
