The Eighth Square: Queer Art Survey at Ludwig Museum

The Ludwig Museum in Cologne presents 'The Eighth Square,' a comprehensive survey of queer culture from the 1960s to the present, curated by Frank Wagner. The title references a checkers rule where a pawn reaching the eighth square becomes a queen, symbolizing radical status change and gender inversion. The exhibition explores marginal sexuality, including homosexuality and transsexuality, through nine thematic sections: transsexuality, intersexuality, portraiture and identity, sexist machismo, places of desire, discrimination, and AIDS. Key works include Man Ray's portrait of Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy, Claude Cahun's self-portrait as a man, and Andy Warhol's feminized drag portrait. The show features photography and video by artists such as Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cindy Sherman, and Del LaGrace Volcano. It revisits themes from the 1995 San Francisco exhibition 'In a Different Light' at the University Art Museum. Critic Paul Ardenne notes the exhibition's documentary tone, lack of eroticism, and dated feel, arguing that queer art's complexity is overshadowed by spectacle. The exhibition runs from August 19 to November 12, 2006.