When I went to read todays TDS I realized I had not read last week's yet! So, from that one I would like to say:
Thank you Stacey Bailey for just continuing to be yourself and taking the challenge on that was meant to try and stop you from teaching.
Unfortuantely I CAN believe there are people that try to erase even the smallest of facts, like someone is gay or not in the guise of "protecting children."
It seems that it’s not only children who need to be “protected.”
In an article in
Slate five years ago, Mark Stern questions why the Museum of Modern Art’s 2013 exhibition, “Johns and Rauschenberg,” put Johns and Rauschenberg “back in the closet,” and argues that,
Museums have a responsibility to acknowledge and consider the sexuality of artists in their collections when it is relevant to the work they are displaying. That’s the real tragedy of “Johns and Rauschenberg”: not that it puts gay artists in the closet, but that it keeps viewers in the dark.https://slate.com/culture/2013/02/moma-closets-jasper-johns-and-robert-rauschenberg-why.html I'd also like to thank you for teaching me something...
"...she taught her students about gay artist Jasper Johns..."
I didn't know Jasper Johns was gay, so you taught ME something! Several years ago I had seen a segment on the
Charlie Rose show when he interviewed someone about Jasper Johns and talked about his work and many other things.
That simple fact that he was gay never entered the conversation at all. Just a short time later I visited the Bing Theatre
at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see a film there and your ticket to that place allows you to see current exhibits.
I was early, so I went in and to my surprise there was an exhibit of Jasper Johns works for which I'd had a superb introduction
from that program I watched! I Can't believe I didn't know this personal information about the artist previously. [snip]
Well, I knew about Jasper Johns—and also about Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011).
Johns is now 88, but in 1949 he moved from South Carolina to New York City, and lived in downtown Manhattan between 1954-1961, where he and fellow artist, the Texan Robert Rauschenberg, were not only painting collaborators but also full-time lovers
They parted after just six years because of their uneasiness with being recognized as a couple publicly. Their breakup was so acrimonious that they both left New York City and didn't speak to one another for more than a decade.
They were mentored by long-term lovers choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage at the center of a clique of New York City gay artists who pioneered most of what is now taken for modern art, dance, and music.
Rauschenberg, prior to meeting Johns, had had a previous sexual relationship with another artist, painter Cy Twombly, which included them living and traveling together extensively in Europe and Africa.
Here’s an informative 2016 BBC documentary on Rauschenberg, with segments on both Johns and Twombly, which you may find of interest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELmPbQNx9MMy apologies for the lateness of this response, Lyle.
