Transgender Art: A Historical and Contemporary Survey of Visibility and Identity
The concept of 'transgender' includes non-binary and third-gender identities, highlighting both erasure and recovery within art history. In Archer Magazine, Archie Barry explores the representation of overlooked transgender figures in pre-modern artwork. One of the earliest instances of sex reassignment is illustrated by Roman Emperor Heliogabalus in Lawrence Alma-Tadema's 1888 piece, The Roses of Heliogabalus. Gender-fluid representations can also be found in the self-portraits of Frida Kahlo and Paul Gauguin's Tahiti series. Established in 2013, the Museum of Transgender History and Art (MOTHA) preserves transgender visual heritage. The post-Stonewall era, exemplified by the Columbus Museum's 2019 exhibition Art after Stonewall, signifies a pivotal moment, featuring notable artists such as Candy Darling, Yishay Garbasz, and Zanele Muholi.
Key facts
- The term 'transgender' is an umbrella term including non-binary and third-gender identities.
- Roman Emperor Heliogabalus, depicted in Lawrence Alma-Tadema's The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), is considered one of the earliest recorded cases of sex reassignment.
- The Museum of Transgender History and Art (MOTHA) was founded in 2013 to collect transgender visual history.
- Candy Darling, born James L. Slattery in 1944, starred in Andy Warhol's Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971) and was among the first wave of transgender people to start hormone transition therapy.
- Yishay Garbasz's Becoming (2007–2010) used 1,866 photographs, with 32 selected for a zoetrope installation shown at the 2010 Busan Biennale.
- Cassils's Becoming an Image began as a site-specific performance for the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, the oldest LGBTQ+ history archive in the United States.
- Mark Seliger's On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories consists of 74 black-and-white portraits taken in 2016 with a Hasselblad camera.
- Leonard Fink's more than 25,000 images documenting 1970s and 1980s West Village queer culture are held by the LGBT Community Center National History Archive in New York City.
Entities
Artists
- Archie Barry
- Frida Kahlo
- Claude Cahun
- Lawrence Alma-Tadema
- Paul Gauguin
- Candy Darling
- Andy Warhol
- Holly Woodland
- Lou Reed
- Yishay Garbasz
- Cassils
- Greer Lankton
- David Wojnarowicz
- Molly Vaughan
- Mark Seliger
- D'Jamel Young
- Leiomy Maldonado
- Leonard Fink
- Roey Heifetz
- Zanele Muholi
Institutions
- Archer Magazine
- Museum of Modern Art
- Museum of Transgender History and Art
- Columbus Museum
- Busan Biennale
- ONE Archives
- LACMA
- Mattress Factory
- LGBT Community Center National History Archive
- Israel Museum
- Tate Modern
- La Boverie
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Tahiti
- Liège
- Belgium
- Busan
- South Korea
- Los Angeles
- Pittsburgh
- Cortez
- Seattle
- Berlin
- Germany
- Jerusalem
- Israel
- London
- United Kingdom
- Montreal
- Canada