THE QUEER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE VISUAL ARTS surveys and introduces a remarkable cultural achievement, one that includes both the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people to the visual arts and their representation in the visual arts. That is, this work is interested in glbtq individuals not only as makers of art, but also as subjects and objects of art.

Presenting nearly 200 articles on individuals, artistic movements, periods, nations, and topics such as AIDS activism and censorship, The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts offers a revisionist art history, one that places the achievements of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer artists in historical contexts and that privileges the representation of subjects that have traditionally been censored or marginalized.

Celebrating the richness and variety of queer contributions to the visual arts, this book presents that achievement as a significant cultural legacy. This legacy includes accomplishments as diverse as the homoerotic images on Greek vase paintings and the sometimes graphic depictions in ancient Indian temple sculpture; the works of Michelangelo and Caravaggio; the self-portraits of Frida Kahlo and the screaming popes of Francis Bacon; the architecture of Julia Morgan and Philip Johnson; the photography of Claude Cahun, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Tee Corinne; the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and the narrative paintings of George Dureau; and the contemporary art of Bhupen Khakhar, David Hockney, Félix González-Torres, and Janet Cooling. It encompasses the religious expressions of El Greco and the pornographic fantasies of Tom of Finland, no less ..” copyrighted material.