Gemma Rolls-Bentley has put together a stunning selection of work by LGBTQI+ Artists for this incredible coffee table book. The publication during the Pride month of June should create a lot of interest for this collection. Well known artists like Keith Haring and Francis Bacon but also not so well known artists are featured. From photographs over paintings to sculptures and installations, this book covers a broad variety of queer art forms. The featured artworks are accompanied by a short but very informative description.

A great book for lovers of modern art!

Many thanks to Netgalley and White Lion Publishing for the eARC!

A beautiful book of queer art! I wish there were *slightly* less text- sometimes the volume of text takes away from the space for the art. I do understand that the queer artists' stories need to be told, but sometimes the art speaks for itself.

The 20th century is the most fascinating time for me to study because it’s a century where there was a lot of change and progress in many ways. One of those ways was social justice, particularly civil rights, feminism, and LGBT rights. Like I’ve said multiple times before on this blog, all three of these movements were contemporaneous. Jim Crow wasn’t that long ago. Women having fewer rights wasn’t that long ago. Homosexuality is still illegal in many countries around the world. During my adulthood I’ve seen the rise in support for marriage equality and increasing visibility of LGBT people and in the past few years I’ve seen a rise in far-right homophobia and transphobia. What’s especially heartbreaking is seeing the division among LGBT people where people fight over the most petty things and there’s an Oppression Olympics of sorts. Unproductive as hell. The real enemy are homophobes and transphobes, not bicurious or questioning people or LGBT people who dress flamboyantly and you deem to be not “respectable”.

One thing that has stayed the same throughout history is the arts being a safe haven for LGBT people. People like to think of classic rock as a macho man straight genre when the truth is there’s a large number of gay and bisexual men in the genre as well as lesbian and bisexual women. So when I got the opportunity to review a new Quarto release called Queer Art, I was excited. I try to post Pride and LGBT themed content every Pride Month and even when it’s not Pride Month I’ll often talk about LGBT issues because it’s very important, not just to me, but millions of people around the world.

The title may offend some people who find the term “Queer” to be a slur and this is addressed in the introduction where the author talks about a British artist named Derek Jarman who staged an exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery called Queer. He explained the decision to call it that because it was more in your face and unapologetic than the world gay. Theorist bell hooks once said that being queer isn’t just about who you love, but also about “the self that is at odds with everything around it.” One could argue that most of us are “queer” in some way whether it’s because we have homosexual attraction, don’t conform to gender roles, or don’t conform to normative relationship or intimacy ideals.

Despite there being a lot of LGBT people in the arts throughout history, their identities aren’t talked about much in art history books. When I was a kid sure we talked about Leonardo da Vinci and Frida Kahlo, but we never talked about his being gay or her being bisexual. Many people like to think that gay people of the past just wanted to live their lives and didn’t rub their sexuality in people’s faces, ergo they’re more respectable than us modern queer folks, when really the truth is that many queer artists snuck queerness in their art through coded messages and symbols and the reason they couldn’t be out is because they grew up in eras where there was a lot of institutionalised homophobia.

The book is divided into three acts: Queer Spaces, Queer Bodies, and Queer Power. Within all these sections you’ll see art by and about LGBT people. Queer spaces aren’t just about the gay bars and nightclubs and cruising spots, but also home. Like straight people, gay and bisexual people want to have safe, loving homes. For many, they didn’t feel accepted by their families of origin and they build their own homes and find their new families. Home is also where you have the most privacy and that is especially important. For some queer people, home may look old fashioned or traditional but with a same sex couple instead of a straight couple, but for others it may be more different with polyamory, open relationships. Of course, there are sections within Queer Spaces that talk about the importance of gay clubs and gay clubs being depicted in art. But there’s also a section on the outdoors and escapism. Just like straight people, gay people appreciate the outdoors and love idyllic settings far from the hustle and bustle of the cities. For some, the city means freedom, but for others it means oppression. There’s some paintings of gay couples making out in the park and it makes me think of the Pretty Things song “Defecting Grey”.

In the second section, Queer Bodies, this is where you’ll start to see some classic rock connections with the intro mentioning Patti Smith’s friend Robert Mapplethorpe who took pictures of the gay scene in New York City in the 70s and 80s. Also in this section is a self-portrait of Andy Warhol in drag from 1982. There’s a lot of non-binary, gender non-conforming, and trans representation in this section as you can expect. A lot of art in this section is more recent, but you’ll also see older art in here too and I love seeing different eras alongside each other. Inside this section you’ll also find art that depicts intimacy and survival. The survival section of the book is a really emotional and moving one to read.

In the Queer Power section, there are discussions of visibility, symbolism, and activism. Not just in the west, but countries all around the world with powerful artwork about institutionalised homophobia, both historic and present. There’s also a section on love, which is incredibly powerful. there’s songs with the title “The Power of Love”, Huey Lewis and the News sang about it and of course, so did Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Appropriately, the book ends with a section called Queertopia with art that showcases a queer futuristic perspective: imagine if the whole world was accepting of us.

This is a very diverse book with representation of trans people, queer people of colour, immigrants, international perspectives outside of the Anglosphere. Like I’ve said about other coffee table books I’ve reviewed being documentaries in a book, this is like an art museum in a book. There is a mix of photography and paintings for the most part with pictures of some art installations that were in museums and some photos of performance art.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy Queer Art by Gemma Rolls-Bentley, a beautiful book to be enjoyed by all art lovers

This book was wonderfully curated to show different types of art centering the queer community in the Western world. I really liked how it was thematically sorted into the chapters and the sheer amount of artwork that was inculed. The text was a welcome addition, although I sometimes wished the artwork was larger to see more details. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and this it's a nice introduction to queer art and history it presents.

This is a gorgeous book filled with queer art and history!! I loved flipping through it and reading about all the artworks mentioned in the book. It's an amazing collection worth reading through!

Amazing amazing book with so much stunning queer art. The background of most of these pieces was so incredible.

There were some super well known people as well as not. I love the inclusiveness of the artists and art present in the book as well.

This felt like stepping into a gallery or a museum exhibition. It had a wide range of art forms, and the pieces in here express different sides of the queer experience.
It was also a nice source of artistic inspiration.

The artworks in this book span several decades of queer art, curated around the topics of Queer Spaces, Queer Bodies and Queer Power. Queer Art has captured the beauty, strength and at times rawness of our community in a way that is both visually enjoyable but also facilitates a deeper understanding of the works.

Highly recommend. I'll be buying a physical copy of this book as soon as I can get my hands on it!

What a treat! I loved the range of art in this book. The pieces made me laugh, cry, admire and question. A perfect coffee table book to spark many interesting conversations and to inspire you. I also discovered a new favourite artist ! Who could ask for more??

Provocative, thought provoking, and beautifully done. "Queer Art", by Gemma Rolls-Bentley is a stunning coffee table book, and I am buying a copy as soon as it hits the bookstore. It's refreshing to see a compilation of art and photography representing the LGBTQI+ community.

This book was an excellent primer of queer art and exposition. I thoroughly enjoyed the images included but the accompanied writings included in the book were equally excellent. I feel as though I learned a great deal from this book and I look forward to adding a physical copy to my shelves.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this Arc copy in exchange for my review.

A beautiful look at LGBTQIA+ art history from the 1960s to now, an indepth analysis of queer traditions and expression accompanied by a vivid selection of curated pieces from prominent artists in the community. 5/5 experience, and a recommended read.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am leaving this review of my own accord.

I loved this. All the benefits of an art museum/gallery without the pressure of someone waiting behind you to read the blurb next to the works.

I loved the breadth of the works chosen, and the intentionality of these choices was apparent. So much life on display and so many artists that I’m left wanting to explore deeper. I need a physical copy of this one for sure.

This was beautifully researched and showcased a multitude of queer artists and their work. There are a lot of pieces it made me want to look further into. I found it admirable for attempting to depict non-print media, such as entire films or video series. I’m still deciding how I felt those landed in this text/still image based format, but I’d rather them have been included because they are art and deserve to be referenced in compilations such as this. The author described the context and intersectionality that the works existed within/stemmed from which highlighted their individuality, while also connecting them across wide-spanning generations and cultures all over the world through the section themes.

Queer Art: From Canvas to Club and the Spaces in Between by Gemma Rolls-Bentley

So this is pretty much what it looks like: it’s nonfiction, picture heavy book about queer art. I’m sure no one here is surprised. I found myself surprised at the different categories the author uses to organize the art in this book. There’s stuff you’d expect, like “self” and “intimacy” but also categories like “home” and “outside” and “survival”. And each category has numerous pieces of incredible works, each with a detailed descriptions of who the author is and what this piece means and represents, and even how it came about in some instances.

Okay so yes, I got an art minor in college, and yes, art history was one of my favorite classes. Yes, I have art history books on my coffee table. This book couldn’t be any more my kind of thing if it had my name in the title.

That being said, this is a beautiful, thoughtful, well constructed look at queer art, what it means and its role in the community. It’s incredibly informative and insightful, and a work of art unto itself.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Quarto Group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

This is a lovely book. The art is wonderful and varied with a little snippet of information next to each piece and the book is organised into categories. The book focuses on more than one medium which is nice as you can see the collection really pulls from all corners of the creative queer community. Some pieces of art are nice to look at, others are absolutely heartwrenching and some are NSFW/Minors.

This entire book is full of intimacy and community and unashamedly queer. I loved it.

This is the sort of book that if I saw out in the wild I would buy it. I'm truly grateful to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion | Frances Lincoln for the preview and the opportunity to read every blurb and descriptor and preface .. now I have to wait until June to buy a copy??

Queer Art works to bring in queer art from all over the world, not just the well known and popular pieces from the West (although there are a few of those! They are important), letting us as readers/viewers experience works we would have never heard of otherwise. And it's all sorts of art, not just paintings and photography, but sculpture and stills from video, images from performance pieces, a whole wide gamut. Truly a special book that provides history and context for everything contained within.

(My only gripe, and it is very minor, is that the photograph Candy Darling on Her Deathbed was used in the preface for the 'Survival' chapter where most of the text describes the very real horror of HIV/AIDS, substance use disorder, and suicide-- this photograph would have been better suited within the chapter itself as she died of none of these things, but of lymphoma probably caused by underground unregulated hormones. Funnily enough I was just thinking about her and I turned the page and ta-dah!).

An art critic at a local newspaper once said that art should be allowed to speak for itself. What happens when the art uses a vocabulary that the viewer does not know?

This book groups the works by theme and discusses the historical and social context both of each theme and of each work. The book thus helps the viewer with the language barrier to understanding the art.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, the author, and to all the artists who had their work in this book for the ARC copy. These are my honest thoughts about the book.

Art is very subjective, and as such, some paintings and photos resonated a lot harder to me than others. Some pieces were beautiful, others were weird, and others were just not to my taste. It was a very diverse collection too, spanning all sorts of different ethnic and gender identities.

It would be a great coffee table book to give a friend that cares about Queer art, expression, and history.