"I know it when I see it..." These words, famously spoken in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, became the rallying cry of the anti-obscenity lobby as their enraged howls became the soundtrack to a tumultuous mixture of modern art, homosexuality, and public funding.
Author Richard Meyer charts the history of this American culture war through detailed analysis of the work of artists who fought on the front lines, often finding themselves personally vilified... and their artwork suppressed, denounced, and censored.
Meyer tells the heroic story of the artists who, rather than acquiesce to their critics, doubled down in their response and created an "Outlaw Representation" of homosexuality. Liberated by their new outlaw status, the homosexual art community was suddenly free to create some of the most socially important work of their generation.
Outlaw Representation is filled with brilliant artwork from some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th Century, including...
- Andy Warhol
- Robert Mapplethorpe
- Paul Cadmus
- Gran Fury
- David Wojnarowicz
- Holly Hughes
... and many more