The young and evil : queer modernism in New York, 1930-1955 / edited by Jarrett Earnest.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reynolds, Ann Morris, author.

Silver, Kenneth E., author.

Schreiber, Michael (Writer), author.

Contributor:

Earnest, Jarrett, editor, author.

Kowell Family Art History Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Modernism (Art).

History.

Gay artists.

United States.

Gay artists--United States--Biography.

Gay artists--United States--History--20th century.

Modernism (Art)--United States--History--20th century.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Catalogs.

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

150 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 31 cm

Other Title:

Queer modernism in New York, 1930-1955

Place of Publication:

[New York : David Zwirner Books, [2020]

Summary:

"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.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at David Zwirner from February 21-April 13, 2019.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Kowell Family Art History Fund.

ISBN:

9781644230268

1644230267

OCLC:

1127886423